Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

…

Cracking her back Alphys sighed as she painted the finishing touches on her latest figurine; a limited ‘build it yourself’ model of her favorite character in Mew-Mew Kissie Cutie. Sighing in relief she set it aside to dry. It hadn’t been a very busy day in the small anime shop she ran on the surface, most of her products sold better on her online store, and she’d started to nod off over the ancient cash register.

“ALPHYS!!!” Between the loud bellow and the sound of the glass door being kicked open the dragon-woman jumped awake.

“P-Papyrus!?” Alphys exclaimed shocked to see a distraught looking skeleton monster. Glancing down she noticed the person held in his arms and the bright red blood dripping onto the tiled floor. “OMG, FRISK! Q-Quick…” Rushing around the counter she beckoned Papyrus to follow her into the back room.

Abnormally quiet, the tall skeleton followed her orders, clutching the passed out human. Alphys went to turn on the light switch, only to notice that the hospital-like room she kept in the back had everything turned on, shocked for a moment she almost didn’t see Sans pulling over a tray with an assortment of medical supplies. Filing the curious thought away for future analysis, she skipped over questioning his mysterious appearance and prepared herself.

Papyrus stiffly laid the human down upon the cushioned examination table, stepping back; hands folded and stood quietly in the corner of the room. The blood on his gloves had started to dry but he didn’t move, his usually unlit eyes alight with large white dots, small orange tears forming at the corners of his widened eye sockets.

Alphys got to work, snapping on a pair of latex gloves, she examined her patient. Her recent knowledge on human anatomy told her that the piece of bone sticking out of Frisk’s leg was something serious, if not outside of her skill-range. She’d read a diagram of what to do in this situation, but to actually perform the actions needed to set a compound fracture, forcing the bone back into place… well, in the past she’d done worse hadn’t she?

Shaking off her dark thoughts Alphys got to work on cleaning the wound thanking the Higher Powers that the teenager was unconscious. The pain must have been excruciating. A physical wound on a human tended to hurt much more than a wound to the soul, and the effects lasted longer, even with magically enhanced food. Frisk’s blood made her gloved hands slick as she took a deep breath and applied pressure to the fracture.

This caused several things happened at the same time.

A loud pop resounded throughout the room as the bone slid back into place, Frisk’s body jerked as their eyes opened wide, revealing two bright green orbs, and a long, stifling scream broke through the silence. Alphys, distraught, heard Papyrus faint behind her, but her focus was on the smaller skeleton in front of her. Sans pinpricks disappeared completely, his trademark smile seeming out of place with his mood. His hands shook as he let out a long wheeze.

At this point Frisk had returned to unconsciousness and Alphys went back to work, focused on her task, scared slightly by the sound of rattling bones across from her. Putting on a fresh pair of gloves, having to step over Papyrus, she checked the bone, muscle, and tissue with the help of her medical diagnosis book. Satisfied, she applied a numbing agent and started to sew the wound up.

A splint, gauze, bandages, and an injection of morphine later, she discarded the second pair of bloody gloves and lab coat. Washing her hands a third time she watched as Sans grabbed a stool, his left eye flashed a bright cyan, his left hand glowing with the same magic. Jumping at the sight Alphys quickly rushed towards him.

“Sans, NO! You can’t heal Frisk yet! I have to take an X-ray to make sure the bone is set correctly!” She spoke, surprisingly without a stutter. Snapping out of his serious demeanor, the two white pinpricks reformed in his eyes.

“b-but…” Another raspy wheeze pushed past his teeth making an eerie whistling noise. “alphys… Frisk… the kid…”

Alphys had never seen Sans this shaken. Calmly she walked around the table that held the Savior of Monsters, grabbing a medical blanket and handed it to him. She watched as he unfolded the material, almost robotic, and covered the small human making sure to avoid the damaged leg while still tucking them in with great care. Sans usually only showed his brother such gentleness, but to watch as he treated Frisk with the same care & respect took the breath from her, but a need to know what happened pushed at the back of her mind making her find her voice

“S-Sans, wh-what happened?”

“can we, uh, pick Paps up first? i’m sure he’s tired of being floored …heh.” The joke sounded hallow.

“S-Sure, he-here let m-me help you.”

Together they propped the larger skeleton brother up on a rolling chair and moved him into the stores storage room. Alphys kept a cot in the back, just in case she ever got tired or if an emergency came up (not unlike the one that just occurred), and with help from Sans they managed to gently roll Papyrus onto it. Sighing in relief the two monsters returned to the small medical room and relaxed slightly.

“S-So about Fr-Frisk?”

Pulling the stool over Sans took a seat as Alphys hopped up onto the rolling chair. Tentatively, the small skeleton’s gaze passed over the human that gave a shuttered breath every few minutes. Taking a deep breath himself and closing his eyes he turned to look at Alphys.

“sometimes i think we should’ve stayed in that damn cave.” This got a shocked gasp out of the former Royal Scientist. A few minutes passed as he let his words sink in before continuing. “the kids too nice for their own good…” Sans took another deep breath to calm himself. “…me, Papyrus, and the kiddo were out playing basketball like we usually do on fridays, when a group of punks rolled up and started harassing a couple of human & monster girls watching us play.” He paused as a small moan of pain escaped Frisk’s mouth.

Moving off the chair Alphys checked the teen over, and gave them another small dose of morphine. Getting back into her chair she motioned for him to continue.

“r-right. so, uh, at this point Paps won’t stand for none of it an goes over to confront the little dirt bags…” He growled, eye-lights going out. “…they ended up pushing him to the ground and one of ‘em went to kick his chest in, but the kid…” Blue tears started to pool out of his hollow eye sockets, shoulder blades shaking. “t-that one had a pocket knife in their hand, the kid dodged the first kick and the bastard managed to drop the knife- then he grabbed hold our little buddy an’ twisted them wrong… an’ st-started... kickin’… at their leg...”

Alphys frightened leaned back in her chair as the cyan & yellow flickering light returned to Sans’ left eye. She watched as the magical liquid streamed down his cheek bones as his glove covered hands gripped the front of his sweatpants. Nervous, she waited for him to calm down.

“i-i’d been too preoccupied with Papyrus to notice till the kid scr-screamed out like they did when you… uh, when you fixed them.” He started to breathe heavy, the blinking colors of his magic flashing eye staring off into the wall behind Alphys.

“I’D NEVER FELT SUCH R A G E.”

Exasperated, the magic faded once more leaving his eye sockets black as his body slouched.

“Sans…” Anxious, she approached the small skeleton with caution, her stutter quelled with fear. “What did you do?”

“nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“i did n o t h i n g.” The lights in his eyes returned, but they both started to swirl. “i was… i watched ‘em kick the ki-Frisk’s leg in, watched till it started to bleed and the… b-bone…” If the color could have drained from Sans’ face Alphys was sure it would have. “uh, anyway, um, next thing i know i’m literally dunking the shit-face and Paps has Frisk in his arms; leaving me to run here. the other little parody-punks had disappeared and i figured it’d take a while for that rotten meat-bag to get down from the basket ball hoop. then i took a shortcut here to get the equipment ready.” He shrugged, the light in his eyes smaller than usual, but he appeared back to normal.

“S-Sweet Asgore.”

“heh… yeah, that about covers it.” His hand brushed against the blanket covering Frisk as he let out a long sigh. “you know, that crazy robot of yours may not be my favorite, but I definitely owe him a metta-ton for donating this equipment to you.” That got a genuine laugh out of the two monsters.

“Yeah, w-well, my manga hasn’t r-really taken o-off yet so m-moneys a little ti-tight."

“hmm…” Sans nodded, eye sockets fixated on Frisk.

“U-Um… I-I guess I’ll go ch-check on Papyrus?"

“sounds like a good idea.” His voice sounded dry.

Leaving the room Alphys quietly closed the door behind her and proceeded to sink to the floor with her hands covering her eyes. This wasn’t the first time a ‘violence’ happened against monsters, nor was it the first time Frisk had gotten hurt by one of their peaceful actions towards angry humans. The incident might have been monster-hate fueled, but for that hate to switch so suddenly onto one of your own kind…

It was so H U M A N.

There were days when Alphys wondered if Frisk were actually a monster that happened to look convincingly like a human. The child was so kind, so like a monster, perhaps they were like the same species as the Serif brothers who were somewhat identical to a human skeleton. Shaking the thoughts from her head Alphys stood up from the floor and walked towards Papyrus. Small sobs could be heard before she managed to walk around the merchandise hiding the cot and she briefly wondered if she should give him some space. Peeking around the corner she could see him curled up into a little shaking ball of bones and immediately rushed over to soothe him.

“Shh… it’s okay, Pappy, Frisk is okay!” She managed to say with her most confident voice. “Here, come on Coolskeleton95, give me a hug?” She wasn’t used to physical comfort but knew that Papyrus would most likely appreciate the offer, and sure enough, in a matter of moments Alphys had been smushed against his battle body.

“A-A-ALPHYS!!!” He bellowed. “I-FRISK- T-THEY…” Papyrus was, probably for once in his life, having trouble speaking. “THOSE HUMANS HURT FRISK!” Another wailing sob. “I ONLY WANTED TO PROTECT- I- THEN THEY WERE SCREAMING AND- WHY WAS FRISK…” His sobbing slowly quieted as his shaking stopped and his voice dropped so low Alphys almost missed what he’d said. “…oozing ketchup?”

In any other moment she would have blamed Sans for his poor taste in teaching his brother about the world, but the way Papyrus said the word ketchup made her shutter. Deep down, the realities of the world had found their way inside the innocent mind of her friend. He just made the mistake of mixing the word ketchup for blood.

“Oh Pappy…” Hot tears of her own began to flow from her eyes as she returned his grip.

How could she explain this to him?

An hour later had Papyrus covered up & passed out on the cot after having cried his eye sockets out. She hadn’t said anything other than comforting nonsensical words to the young skeleton, unwilling to be the one to poison his mind. If felt wrong not telling him the harsh realities of the world, but she now had a direct understanding as to why Sans acted the way he did around his brother. With these thoughts in mind Alphys finally made the decision to go back to the medical room. She hesitated to knock. Just when she built up the courage to open the door she could hear the soft murmur of a conversation. Slowly she dropped her ear to the door knob and listened.

“…I’m f-fine Sans.” Frisk’s soft voice cracked.

“no, no you ain’t kiddo. why would you do something like that- you- you know that humans are… some humans are dangerous.” He ground the words out. “i’m tired of these soft R E S E T S.” He sighed and spoke in a softer tone. “i’m tired of watching you die.”

“Sans-”

“stop it, Frisk. one of these days you aren’t going to be able to come back, remember what you told me?” He paused. “YOU CAN BARELY S A V E YOURSELF.” For a moment all Alphys heard was silence.

“I know.” Frisk’s voice sounded hallow, devoid of emotion. “The longer I stay on the surface the more I’m determined to just LIVE my life like an ordinary human, but Sans, eventually my determination to RESET will fade, and one day I’ll no longer need to. You’re asking me to keep a power that causes you, me, and Flowey so much …heartbreak.”

“yeah, but at least you’ll be able to-”

“To live forever? To never die? To sit back and relive this life a million, billion, trillion times over? I… can’t do that again… I… I’m afraid I’ll learn to LOVE again.”

A depressing silence filled the room as Alphys held her breath.

“s-sorry, i know your right… but.” Alphys heard the sound of the stool being moved, then the creak of it as Sans stepped up on it. “watching you get… mangled by that garbage human… heh, if i had a heart it would have stopped.” Frisk giggled. “you, uh, you know i love you right, Frisk?”

A small gasp escaped Alphys’ lips. Quickly, covering up her mouth she moved away from the door and bumped her tail into a stack of manga. The resounding crash penetrated the door and a moment later Sans opened it to stare at her. Flushed pink, her stutter came back full force.

“O-O-Oh, m-my gosh!!! I-I um, m-must ha-have t-tripped!” Embarrassed, because she really did accidentally trip, Alphys adjusted her glasses and looked anywhere but at Sans. She wondered if he knew she’d been eavesdropping on his conversation. “Ho-How’s F-Frisk?” A big light blue blush spread across the small skeleton’s face, making him turn away from her.

“you can ask them yourself.”

He left the room but stopped short just as he passed her and paused. Expecting him to call her out, Alphys didn’t move till he continued his slow gate, more than likely on his way to check up on his younger brother. After a moment to settle her nerves she extended her clawed hand and knocked twice on the door; peeking in just enough to see the pained look on Frisk’s face as they sat up.

“F-Frisk?”

“Alphys?” Frisk croaked.

Swiftly grabbing a cup from the shelf she filled it with water. “Here, d-drink this.” She watched as the cup was drained, refilled it and repeated one more time. “F-Feeling any better?”

“My leg hurts a little.” Alphys narrowed her eyes at the human. “Sans tried to heal me a bit.”

“Augh, I told him to wait!” Alphys’ face bugged out as steam burst from her ears.

“Ha, ha, ha… Wow, Alph, I’ve never seen you lose your… cool.”

“Frisk… y-you’ve b-been hanging out with Sans too m-much.” Alphys deadpanned. “But seriously, let’s take a look at your leg. The sooner I can take an X-ray the better.”

The human blushed and allowed Alphys to unwrapped the dressing, carful to take off the splint, Frisk only crying out once during the removal. Wincing, Alphys rolled the portable X-ray machine along their body. Playing it safe Alphys decided to check the human’s whole body, having never done so before, soon she was going through the necessary steps to produce a quality image. Later she pinned it onto the light board along the wall.

“Woah. Is- Is that my skeleton?” Frisk said amazed.

“Yes, and if you look here-” She pointed to the left leg in the picture. “-you can see the fracture. Now, let’s give it a look-see…” Alphys stood on her tip toes to examined the break, observing everything appeared to be normal. “…looks good to me! U-Uh, that is w-with my l-limited k-knowledge on the s-subject.” She blushed.

“Alph, that is so cool!” Frisks eyes were wide open, happy despite having suffered such a traumatic event. “Wait till Sans & Papyrus see this!”

“W-What-” Alphys’ blush intensified. “Frisk you can’t sh-show them this!!!” Her voice pitched.

Her mind spiraled downwards; showing this to the two brothers the X-ray was equaled to showing them a ‘nude’. Hastily, she tried to take down the photos when Karma struck. Who else would waltz into the room other than one of the two monsters she didn’t want to see.

Eyes drawn to the only light in the room the small skeleton got an eye socket-full. The room turned a bright cyan blue. Sans’ face started glowing like a light bulb as he stared at the image. Slowly, the light in his eyes switched from the X-ray to Frisk, then back again. Finally his eyes fell on his sneakers as he waited for Alphys to turn on the lights and take down the X-ray.

“Sans are you ok? You’re looking a little… blue!” Frisk gave a small snicker and Alphys swore Sans turned another shade darker.

“heh… wow kid that really blue me away. turquoise this is just me trying to be cyan-tifically correct but i’ll azure you that i’m feeling teal-ly great. indigo about you though, if you can make an ultramarine joke like that you should be fine.”

The room fell silent.

“Frisk w-why must you get him s-started.” Alphys said face-palming.

“S-Sorry Alph.” Frisk turned to Sans bowing their head at him. “Sensei.”

“you better …believe it, kid!” Both Alphys and Frisk groaned at the lame Naruto reference.

“A-Anyway, let’s g-get you into a cast, ok Frisk?’

The rest of the evening was spent fixing Frisk with a proper cast, Sans making more horrible puns, and when Papyrus had woken up, crying & happy to find their friend alright, they all signed the hardened plaster. Eventually everything got cleaned up, Sans taking care of the blood that’d been dripped throughout the shop, and Papyrus ended up carrying his friend and brother home. With the shop quiet & closed for the day Alphys couldn’t help but go through the events that had taken place, but decide to leave it for another day.

It didn’t matter to her, anyway…

"Not really…"

Chapter Text

…

The sound of heavy combat boots stomping up the stairs would have alerted the entire neighborhood had it not been three in the afternoon. Kicking in the door to her house, Undyne paused to check the damages before she tried to open her fridge with her foot. Pissed she dropped her sorry excuse for a broken arm and practically ripped the door off its hinges. Forgoing any of the ramen or pasta she went straight for the best healing item they owned: a disgusting looking steak in the shape of Mettaton’s face.

Ripping into the magically enhanced food, she cringed, and proceeded to cover it in barbecue sauce. The monster-food was meant to heal but that didn’t mean it couldn’t taste decent, or say, NOT like metal. Slowly, the healing magic of the odd-looking square of meat began to work on her dislocated and broken limb. She could feel her magic reconnecting and the pain of the wound dissipating. Without the pain as a distraction she now had time to fully remember the details behind why she had to frantically run home at half of her HOPE.

It had been a normal day. She’d been working out, off-patrol, at the local park. An incident between Frisk and a human had taken place there three weeks prior, so she made it a new habit to do her usual workout in the area. The park was a kind-of melting pot for humans & monsters; a neutral zone. A place where they could coexist while the world worked out the problems between the two races and that allowed for people to be open to the tides of change.

Too bad that some “people”, some humans more often than not, didn’t take to change very well.

She hadn’t been there when Frisk’s leg had gotten broke, if she had things would have probably ended violently, but she’d been so shocked to hear that Papyrus’ lazy brother had been the one to personally “dunk” the offending human. Undyne laughed remembering how utterly pissed off and scared the kid had been when she and the local police tried to remove him from the basketball hoop.

The only problem?

With the incident was it had left a series of bad publicity for the park, stating that it was dangerous. Not many monsters listened to this, and the humans that regularly visited the park still came back, but the incident had diffidently tainted something pure. So Undyne started working out there and her presence seemed to calm some of the visitors. The feeling of safety started to come back.

Then today happened.

A gang of humans, probably in cohorts with the one that attacked Frisk, shown up at the park with a point to prove: they weren’t ones to take humiliation. Undyne had stopped them, giving them the rehearsed speech about how humans & monsters were under a treaty, that by bringing weapons into the park they were breaking the treaty, and that if they tried anything she had the authority to bring to a halt any of their wayward activity. None of them listened and she ended up turning their hearts green.

She knew not to kill them, so instead she brought their health down just low enough to make them incapable of being a threat and tried to reason with them once more. Undyne, unfortunately, hadn’t gotten accustom to peacefully ending a battle and misjudged the status of one of the humans. The teenager attacked her with a baseball bat, reacting out of instinct she threw up her right arm.

The magic broke and her arm bent in an odd angle.

The pain shot through her, but she held her ground kicking the kid in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the now defenseless human. Huffing out breathes she could hear the sound of Lesser and Greater Dog running her way. Pulling out her phone she called the human police, in less than a half an hour the situation had been dealt with, and she in a hurry to get home, seeing that none of the surrounding monsters had any monster-food on them.

At the base of the problem it was the same reason why Asgore still employed the Royal Guard: humans were dangerous, stupid, & ignorant. At least a small handful was, but that handful tended to spread if they weren’t debunked or placated by their Monster Ambassador: Frisk. As head of the Royal Guard, now stationed on the Surface, she found herself working a lot more than she did when they lived Underground. Monsters never caused as much trouble as humans did, nor did they start as many life-threatening fights.

Undyne sighed, flexing her arm.

Alphys would be home soon so she should start writing out her full report on the incident. She didn’t want her partner to worry. Stalking over to the computer she brought up a new document in Maxisoft and stared at the screen. The fingers in her right hand felt stiff, the healing magic still working on her body. She started typing using one finger at a time.

“Son of a DUMMY … this is gonna take FOREVER!!!” Pissed, both of her hands fisted and slammed down on the table beside the keyboard. Grinding her sharp teeth she stared at the two letters she managed to type. “I hate typing, why can’t Asgore just let me write out my reports like usual…” She glared at the screen as her face slowly fell. She sighed a second time. “…probably cause my handwriting is illegible.”

Defeated she grabbed the mouse and closed out the new document. ‘ SAVE? No thank you, but perhaps a little web-surfing will calm my nerves. ’ She thought as she began going through old files on the computer she & her girlfriend shared. Flipping through files Undyne started to get bored. Out of curiosity she decided to go through the computer’s history. She knew it was a kind of “invasion of privacy” but sometimes Alphys could be so secretive & shy that if she didn’t go through her downloads or files she’d never know what was going through the dragon-woman’s mind.

“Hmm, what is this?” Squinting at the text she read the list out loud. “Camera Footage 2: Ruin Sentry Gate, Camera Footage 4: Ruin - Sentry Station, Camera Footage 7: Ruin - Papyrus Puzzle, Camera Footage 15: Snowdin - Grillby’s, Camera Footage 28: Waterfall - Telescope, Camera Footage 34: Hotland - Hotdog Stand, Camera Footage 47: MTT Resort, Camera Footage 65: Judgment Hall?” She scrolled down. “FRANS.pdf? What the-” She opened the link and her jaw dropped. A knock on the door made her jump out of her chair.

…

A loud banging could be heard from inside the large fish-shaped house causing Papyrus to pause before he knocked once more on the door. Frantic shuffling and the sound of a glass breaking put him on edge. He went to reach for the door knob when it was yanked away from him. Blinking in confusion at the disheveled Undyne before him. Papyrus not seeing any harm to her person, shrugged it off.

“GOOD AFTERNOON, UNDYNE!!” He shouted, waving his hand in front of her face. “LOOKIE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE BROUGHT YOU A CONTAINER OF MY NEW DELICACY: BONEGOLI BONELOGNESE! I MADE IT PARTIALLY WITH MY MAGIC! NOT ONLY IS IT DELICIOUS, BUT IT HAS A RATHER HIGH HEALING FAC-”

“Give me that!”

Papyrus watched amazed as his idol & mentor threw the lid off his creation and proceeded to devour the dish. She then threw the empty bowl at the sink and dragged him into her home by his red scarf. He noticed the broken vase on the floor and pointed at it, but as he went to speak he found he couldn’t get a word in.

“Pap, I want you to guard this door with your life.” Undyne poked his battle armor. “If anyone comes through that door, STALL them, ok?”

“UH… UM… OK, UNDYNE.”

“I have to go pri-uh, I mean find a dust pan… I made a mess trying to get to the door. DON’T MOVE!” She pointed two V-signed fingers back & forth between them. “Got it?”

“Y-YES, CAPTAIN!!"

Papyrus had no clue what was going on as he stood stock still, hands at his sides, guarding the front door. He did, however, hear a series of interesting sounds coming from his friend’s living room: clicking noises, whirring, screeches, and beeps of what sounded like a printer coming to life. Confused he inched his head to the left to try and see into the space, then straightened immediately when Undyne rushed out of the room. He heard her open a closet, a curse as most of the items in said closet fell out, the clatter of the objects being forcefully shoved back in, and her stomping to the foyer with a dust pan & brush.

Keeping his eye sockets straight he tried not to concentrate on the curious sound still coming from the living room. What was so important that he had to stand guard in her entry way? Why was she printing something? What was she printing? His teeth started to grind as he watched Undyne walk towards the kitchen with the remains of the broken vase. Curiosity burned inside his chest, flaring to life as he heard Undyne turn on the faucet to do whatever dishes were in the sink. Fidgeting, he took a small step forward and looked into the living room.

He couldn’t see much from his view point as he strained his hearing. Then a small ding sounded and the low swish of a paper falling to the floor; his attention had been captured completely. Papyrus tried to remind himself that he couldn’t move from his spot.

But…

He’d already taken a step forward…

Plus, whatever it was Undyne had been printing would surely get ruined if he didn’t go and investigate, right? He could easily make it back to the door in time, right? It would be acceptable to leave his post; he wasn’t exactly in the Royal Guard… so it was ok, right?

Nodding his head Papyrus slowly snuck into the living room just as the last beep came from the printer and made his way over to the computer in the corner. Briefly, he noticed that the table had been kicked over before spotting the printed papers face down on the wooden floor. He almost tsked at Undyne’s carelessness.

Didn’t she know that the picture quality would be ruined if they didn’t dry properly?

The table was turned upright and he picked up the three pictures, laying them face up on the small surface. Papyrus then had intended to retreat to his assigned post after his little act of unwanted assistance, however, his eye sockets were glued to the printed drawings. He felt his mandible loosen and soon the jawbone became unhinged. With his mouth hung open Papyrus stared at the sketches in shock.

“PAPYRUS!?” Undyne screamed from the hallway.

Jumping from fright and the sudden guilt that he’d been caught, not only for leaving his post but for also looking at… fairly well drawn sketches of his brother & Frisk doing …things. Kissing mostly, but the one on the far right made his face blush a bright orange. He may be an “adorable cinnamon roll” ( he had no clue what it meant), but one of the drawings showed two hearts becoming one & even he knew what happened when two souls joined together.

“PAPYRUS!”

Undyne slid into his view, her one eye shot to the pictures on the coffee table. Without thinking Papyrus grabbed at the pictures right as Undyne jumped forward to stop him. He managed to grab them and proceeded to run towards the foyer. He didn’t know why but he felt that what he held in his hands was something very important. It wasn’t just pictures of his brother and his best friend; it was an idea, a feeling. The very thing that was missing in the world, which explained it yet created so many more questions.

“Papyrus I swear you’ll never be in the Royal Guard if you… DON’T. STOP. NOW!!!”

Undyne grabbed the back of his scarf yanking Papyrus to a halt, then let go as he recoiled back into her. The papers in his hands fluttered to the floor. Pushing the young skeleton off of her she went for a mad grab at one of the pictures. A pair of gloved hand grabbed her abdomen, dragging her back as Papyrus wrestled Undyne in hopes to gain the upper hand.

Neither of them noticed the door open.

…

“I can’t believe I let you take me to that stupid store of yours…” Flowey grumbled. He kept his eyes on the ground, occasionally making a face at the bright yellow & green striped bow tied around his flower pot.

“A-Awe, co-come on F-Flowey, it w-wasn’t that b-bad w-was i-it?” Alphys stuttered.

“Not really…” Flowey scoffed in her direction, feeling satisfied when she went quiet.

He really didn’t want to talk to her. Alphys was the monster that’d brought him back from the beyond or the void or whatever that pitch blackness had been. A sprit without a soul trapped in the body of a flower. ‘ Yeah, conversation galore. ’ He thought bitterly. Life as a sentient flower filled to the brim with determination isn’t as nice as it was cracked up to be. He missed his old body, hell he just missed the sensation of being the SPIRIT of his old body. At least his ghost had legs & arms, but he figured things could be worse. Flowey could have been what he was before Frisk came and saved him, but it had been thanks to the leftover remains of his & Chara’s souls combined with the souls of the other six humans that had allowed this “happy ending”, the breaking of the barrier.

He let out a disbelieving grunt and growled further when Alphys tightened her hold on his pot, feeling the pressure through the dirt. Yet he soon calmed down at the gentle swaying of Alphys’ gate. His thoughts on the dragon-woman were often very hot & cold. A small part of him was glad that she’d given him life, the ability to return to the world & not to float forever in darkness, but another part cursed her existence. Fleetingly, he wondered what the world would be like if he’d never existed as Flowey, momentary asking himself the same question but if Asriel never existed. A sort of fear spread up through his roots making it hard for him to breathe. Taking small gasps of air he let the thought pass. He wanted to curse. After all that time, all the RESETS, he was still afraid of death. ‘ Well, not death. More like not existing, being wiped from the MEMORY…’ He bobbed his head, as if approving his thoughts. Opening his eyes he noticed the small fire-proof fish looking building and sighed.

“I-Is th-there som-something th-the m-matter, Fl-Flowey?”

“Your stutter is the worst when you speak to me, you know that?” Flowey pithy looked up at her.

Looking away from the blushing ex-scientist he knew that was the exact thing to say in order to shut her up. He had, after all, experienced so many timelines with this monster alone. He’d made her answer his entire line of questions, twice, thrice even in his desperate attempt to understand his existence at first. Yet there really wasn’t any worthwhile significance in knowing the how or even the why in what he’d become, just a sense of what he could do.

Flowey’s smile turned sinister as he thought back to the power the ability to RESET had given him. Living thought every ending, talking to each and every person in the Underground till nothing meaningful could be gained from conversation. Then when all his sensible options ran out he began the physical dismemberment of the world. The only blips and bumps in his road had been the human children that’d fallen into the underground, but that had always made the GAME even more fun. Like adding another pinball into the machine, it made everything new and challenging.

A small evil chuckle escaped him as he thought back to the conversation he’d overheard Toriel explain to Frisk at the beginning of their journey so long ago. She told the child to beware of Asgore, that he was the one responsible for killing the six humans. Flowey wanted to burst, as if his fluffy-headed do-goody father could actually KILL a human, let alone six. While the monster had started the battles he’d never finished them, Flowey had always intervened right as the old man was about to spare their souls, too weak to give into the LOVE. No, it was Flowey who’d killed the six humans, but his ability to PAUSE the game only lasted for so long and he didn’t want to be seen by his father. So he let the King believe that he’d killed innocents, and that in itself was a kind of game he never got tired of seeing, the look of devastation on his father’s face. The look of disgust in his mother’s eyes. Ripping his family apart because they didn’t see the signs when his sibling…

It had been a cold revenge.

In reality, a petty and childish thing for him to do, but the SOULS were kept in good care with his father, and while he would have liked to have the power of the slain humans, it didn’t particularly bother him, he needed seven anyway, he could wait and always try to capture the souls another go around.

Time, at the time, had been on his side.

So it went, as each human fell he would kill them, letting his father take the blame. By the time the sixth human had fallen, defeated, Flowey’s level of violence had hit nineteen. He could feel it, the power radiating from the souls that were under his Father’s protection, but no matter what persuasion he couldn’t get the old man to hand them over. He tried to tell himself that there was nothing wrong, he needed one more soul anyway, but he felt a different kind of urgency in the back of his consciousness.

A familiar presence that he hadn’t felt in centuries.

Flowey knew he needed to reach LV 20. Something new awaited him with the death of the seventh human child, someone old patiently waited to greet him. His petals shivered whenever he thought of Chara, their eerie smile & echoing laugh, not necessarily in fear but in anticipation.

Unfortunately, that plan had never come to fruition, as Frisk fell from the surface with enough determination to practically bend reality; they succeeded in doing everything he had intended for himself. Like Flowey, the human had experienced e v e r y ending the Underground had to offer, including the one he wanted: the one where Chara’s spirit resurfaced.

Jealousy flared inside the small flower. Even now, if he looked the right way, squinted out of the side of his eye, he could see the red glint of Chara’s spirit coexisting insides Frisk’s body. The stupid child had actually sold their SOUL in order to RESET the world. All that LOVE gone to waste because they felt bad and wanted their “happy” ending. He chuckled; there would never be a happy ending with Chara’s spirit within “their” soul.

Of course, Frisk was determined.

Determined not to die. Determined not to lose. Determined not to become the puppet of a demonic spirit. Determined to LIVE their happy ending…

Determined to bring Asriel back as a damned sentient flower, who could NOT feel emotions, but was now filled with the integrity, bravery, kindness, patience, perseverance, & justice of the six fallen children he’d killed. Karma had come back to bitch-slap him across his face. Evil thoughts were still a big part of his character, except now he had all these other moral, virtuous thoughts that his old Asriel-self used to live by. Flowey doubted he’d ever go back to the homicidal flower he once was.

What a shame.

“W-Were here!!” Alphys’ voice managed not to crack as she shifted his pot into view and Flowey out of his thoughts.

She opened the door.

Chapter Text

…

All hell broke loose when Flowey saw the pictures lying in the foyer.

He didn’t live through 2,465 of Frisk’s RESETs to see that S M I L E Y T R A S H B A G & the reincarnation of his sibling doing… adult stuff. Alternating between a shade of sickly green and angry red, Flowey’s vines curled up and over his pot as his face contorted into something horrific.

Then Alphys dropped his flower pot.

The resounding crash seemed to pull everyone out of their stupor. Papyrus and Undyne stood up from the floor, both looking anywhere but at the doorway. Alphys was beat red, frantically trying to decide to hide the now very tangible evidence of her new-found “ship” or pick up the seething flower.

“I-I-I… I’m s-so so-sorry F-Flowey!” Alphys stuttered, going to reach for him.

Before her hand could get close enough to touch him she watched on in shock as he lunged forward, mouth open snatching up the X-rated drawing. He then scrambled using his vines across the living room, dodging Undyne as she went to hurdle herself on top of him. He bound into the kitchen, hopping out the open window, free as soon as his roots hit the dirt. Of course, that didn’t mean that he disappeared off somewhere to sulk, instead he used the years of knowledge he’d gained through resetting to hide close enough to Alphys house to properly concern his imposed ‘ghost’ emotions. Slithering up along the other side of house like a creeping vine he listened in.

“D-DO YOU THINK HE’S OK?” Leave it to Papyrus to worry about his safety.

“Damn that little flower, hmph, he took the best one…” The paper in his mouth crinkled as he bit down on it.

“U-Undyne wh-why…” Flowey watched as Alphys went to pick up her artwork but was interrupted when both Papyrus and Undyne simultaneously each dived for a drawing. “Give those back! Undyne! P-Papyrus wait-” Flowey slunk down below the window sill not wanting to be caught as Papyrus ran into the living room.

“I AM TRULY SORRY, DR. ALPYS BUT I… I NEED TO KEEP THIS!”

One of Flowey’s eyes twitched as he heard the loud stomping from Papyrus’ boots clomping towards where he’d hid himself. The sound of glass breaking inches above his petals and the ridiculous sight of the skeleton doing a dive out the window, then a drop & roll, running swiftly away from the house had his beady black eyes as wide as they could go. He would have laughed hysterically at the situation had Undyne not started yelling out the window.

“PAPYRUS!!! Get back here and give me that-”

“Undyne.” Flowey’s eye twitched & he gave a small sigh of relief when Undyne leaned back into the house.

“Uh… yeah Alpy?” He could practically hear the sweat pouring off her.

“Why did you-” She paused. “…pr-print my, um, uh…” Flowey could just picture how red the dragon-lady’s face became. “…fan art.”

‘Smooth.’ He thought glancing down at the paper; thankfully was backside up.

“Fan art? Alphys what are you talking about?” Undyne and Flowey waited for a response in silence, but when Alphys refused to explain Undyne continued. “Oh… I get it. This-” The sound of paper fluttering. “-is a like that time you drew stuff of Asgore & Toriel right?”

“Ye-Yes!” Flowey almost let go of the paper, he felt unsettled that his technical creator had been doodling about his parents getting together. He wondered for a moment if perhaps he should just leave, but the worry of not knowing kept him planted (heh) to the spot.

“So…” He could hear her shifting the paper. “…why are you drawing Frisk getting it on with Sans? Of all monsters!” Flowey’s face became dark, his body snapped to attention.

“I, um, well, its ki-kind of…”

“Alpy, come on you can tell me. At least don’t keep me in the dark about all this.”

“I m-may have h-heard Sans telling Frisk he loved them-”

Flowey’s mouth fell open; the drawing began to drift to the ground. Remembering it he stabbed the drawing in the corner with a little more force that was necessary. In that same moment he heard Undyne unceremoniously flop most-likely onto a couch. Safe to say they’d both been stunned by Alphys’ answer.

“I m-mean, he could have been telling Frisk he lo-loved them in a platonic & friendly way, but, I, um, uh, GOSH!!!” He could picture her doing a double face palm by the sound of things. “I went through all the old video footage from when Frisk trekked the Underground, and I found a lot of evidence that supports my theory-”

“Theory?” Undyne said with confusion.

“Um, that they’ve been d-dating?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Flowey couldn’t agree more.

“J-Just look at the facts!” Alphys was in her science-mode, Flowey cringed. “Simply from the video footage alone shows increased activity from Sans! He even took Frisk on two dates! One to Grillby’s, and another to Mettaton’s resort! On top of that, once we reached the surface -besides Toriel and strangely Asgore- he’s been with them the most. Sans has been constantly treating them to dinners, lunches, their almost always at his house –even when Papyrus isn’t there- and I’ve caught them talking together about things numerous times! One time he’d been holding Frisk’s hand and-”

“ALPHYS! Whoa, calm down ok, you look like one of my simmering tomatoes, heh-heh, and ready to burst!” Flowey let out a low groan from his under the window. “But, ah, what does all that have to do with you… ah what’s that word you used? Ship…? Shipping them?”

“O-Oh th-that! I, you see, I got th-this urge to j-just see what they’d look… like… as one…” At her confession Flowey felt bile rise up through his stem. “Uh… I made their ship name, uh, Frans…soooo…”

“Well, this isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve caught you, heh-heh, sinning.” Flowey was ready to leave and began descending from the window. “Oh, and I’m keeping this drawing, it might come in handy if I ever find that small skeleton slacking off again!” Flowey paused, his head perking up at Undyne plan to use Alphys’ artwork as blackmail. He knew for a fact that the Captain of the Royal Guard had too much honor to do such an underhanded exploit.

But he didn’t.

Another evil grin graced his face as his petals spread out around his face in glee, slowly he held up the drawing of Frisk & Sans combining their souls together. It may have been disgusting to look at, but he thanked his lucky stars for coming across it, he now had what he needed to keep the slimy garbage brother away from Frisk. Smirking he rolled the paper up and using a tiny vine attached wrapped it around his stem for safe keeping.

“I-I’m deleting the f-file!” He heard Alphys shout as he disappeared underneath the earth’s surface.

…

Gaster floated between the CODE as he watched his son rummage around the small lab kept beneath the house in Snowdin. His presence unnoticed, he inspected the surroundings. Sans sat on the floor with mounds of paperwork surrounding him, an old bulky laptop whirring next to him, not surprisingly hard at work trying to figure out the time continuum.

His smile broadened, but the gap between his nose cavity and lip protested, so he settled for a contented sigh. A lot had happened since Frisk fell into the Underground. The strength of the human’s determination had completely warped the reality that they’d lived in. It had allowed him to break through the void and return, albeit mostly without a physical form. The human had the ability of a god and the attention of his son. Their body was definitely the vessel, the catalyst that would either destroy or save the monster race. However, it came down to the spirit, the essence of determination, which would decide how the world played out.

Gaster hadn’t been the only spirit to reside in the VOID…

Regardless his magic was still strong & well within the world, proven in the worst of timelines when Sans’ provoked it by summoning his blaster, combining Gaster’s yellow magic with Sans’ cyan. Thinking back he could remember how Papyrus had tried to befriend the conscious buttercup on one of the rare days he brought his youngest to the lab, and the flower convinced him to “see what would happen if he jumped in”. At that point he and Sans had been tracking the odd anomalies that’d been reoccurring across their space time.

Gaster had been there just in time to grab Papyrus away from the edge of the core, gravity swinging him in instead. He remembered vividly as Sans shot up a wall of defensive magic, covering his larger brother with as much of his own body, protecting them both. The corporal magic of his body disintegrated canceling out the pain as his dust turned instantly to CODE, a small amount of his inner magic, his soul magic, shot into Sans.

Perhaps not everything had gone wrong when he’d fallen into the core.

His sacrifice had saved Papyrus, and from the subsequent explosion of his soul, he’d given one of his sons the means to continue his work and protect the timeline. The magic Sans received was linked to him, giving Sans the ability to remember certain memories and feelings after the world RESET. The power Gaster’s death granted Sans helped form his ability to teleport through the rips in space, and for a short period of time –stop time itself, and thanks to Sans’ own knack for details and experimentation with dimensional rips the small skeleton had become quite a force to be reckon with.

But… none of his experiments with time had been a worth it.

Gaster would always be remembered, but at the cost of his son’s sanity & HOPE. Sans being the only monster to remember him beyond doubt, Alphys remembered snippets due to the majority of his research being left in the True Lab, and her putting two & two together. Asgore remembered him -that he was sure- yet he didn’t know how the King knew, but an unsettling voice in the darkness of the VOID lent to his conclusion.

Sighing he wondered what his son thought of the whole situation, after all, a different view on the subject never hurt. Floating next to Sans he honed into the tiny spark of his magic burning in his son’s soul, fading back to the void he looked into the physical world taking on Sans’ point of view.

…

A day after the incident with Undyne left the media in an uproar. Fear spread through the monsters living Aboveground & riots broke out in human cities. Several extremist groups had struck, kidnapping monsters, killing monsters, spreading hate & LOVE.

Sans took a deep breath as he finished putting the last of his thoughts into his journal along with several news clippings and printed web articles. Flipping to the next page he tallied his numbers. Overall, Frisk had SOFT RESET in the past week close to sixteen times. With each soft reset, they went back to their last SAVE point, it left them to figure out the tragedies before hand, figure out a solution, and bypass the problem before it could even happen.

That all seemed fine and dandy to him, sure it meant a splitting headache & sometimes the loss of his previous meal, the annoyance of having to redo a day or week, and the aggravating knowledge that he still had no control over anything in the timeline, but the outcome was more than worth it. The monsters were safe from human intervention; retaliation to their race defending themselves.

A joke he didn’t find funny.

The problem wasn’t with the soft resets, it was Frisk’s ability to SAVE, or lack there-of. As it turned out the magic of the Human Barrier awoke the functions of Frisk’s soul when they fell. With the barrier gone the extra energy disappeared. What he gathered lead him to believe that once above ground it took more determination to SAVE because the concentration of magic wasn’t as strong as it was Underground. This meant full weeks would be replayed if Frisk died or reset because it took so much out of them to SAVE.

“let’s see, when…” Sans cringed, the last time Frisk had saved was before the incident with the basketball punks.

Frisk had been replaying their leg getting kicked in near seventeen times.

Empathy for the kid would be his downfall. Sans knew they weren’t the same child that’d freed them all that first time so many timelines ago. There was a new essence to their soul, another spirit that inhabited their body, a HATE filled spirit. Sighing in exasperation Sans laid down on the floor of his lab; safely still tucked away in the Underground. Staring at the ceiling he went over his feelings for the anomaly.

“Frisk.” He verbally corrected himself.

Frisk may have been “the anomaly” but there was so much more to them than his scientific labeling. The kid had, at first been a project. Something of immense interest, to be studied, graphed, organized, theorized, outlined, and typed up into a thick report. Science, specifically space time, had always been “fun”, and to him one of the only times in his life where he found himself “hard at work”. His room, appearance, and life may be a mess, but his level of fixation on his core subject proven to himself, several times over, that there was no “theoretical” about his title as a physicist. Grunting he shifted his position and closed his eye sockets. He could afford to be lazy & sloppy with the unimportant details in life.

Being lazy objectively was a lie.

The word “lazy” suited him just fine; it gave other people a false sense of what he was truly capable of. Everything he did had a reason behind it, mostly. True he liked to sleep & preferred not to clean up his room, but that was because he’d work long into the night tracking blips in the timeline and ended up sleeping the rest of the time, necessary to gain extra HP beyond his one point. If the timeline ever went sour he had to have at least 10,000 max HP, leaving him with his one point if he failed to stop them. Slowly dying he would take a shortcut back to his basement lab.

Standing up from the floor he went over to the picture he kept from the very first time he’d made it to the surface. Memories hit him causing a painful headache to explode across his temple; visions of him, Frisk, and the rest of his friends reaching the surface, and the minuscule differences of how they got there. Then he started to feel nauseous as the slow resurfacing of the bad timeline, the dust, the fear, and the sound of the kid’s own battle music as they initiated battle with him.

The real knife…

Sans chewed on the small ketchup packet he kept in his mouth, his glove covered hand reaching up to touch his chest where he stored a large plastic bag filled with more ketchup. If anyone were to ask him, they were there for either pranks or because he really did love to drink ketchup straight. However, he brought the worn picture to his nose cavity turning it over he smelled the dried condiment and just a hint of his own dust. The memory of him dragging a ketchup covered finger, making red X’s, over each of the face of his friends & finally himself stung. It was a reminder. Frisk had accumulated the highest about of LOVE, and he couldn’t stop them from destroying everything he held dear.

He felt bitter sweet.

Sans placed the photo back inside the drawer and leaned against the wall. Pulling out a handkerchief he wiped the sweat from his brow, pulling it back his eye sockets narrowed in annoyance. Cursing at himself he forgot to put his trick-hanky back in the literal pocket dimension that was his hoodie. Looking at his reflection on the tiled wall, he saw a thick line of ink covering his skull.

“great, i didn’t think that one through.” He snorted at his weak pun.

The only rival for his love of science had been comedy, both overshadowed by his love for his brother, and with everything that he loved, he excelled. Sans could turn any conversation into a punishment. He had all the classics: whoopee cushions, hand buzzers, rubber chickens, eye-ball glasses with the large nose & mustache, and since hitting the surface his list of prank items only got longer. He especially loved to practice his new found gadgets on his brother, and since he was a true master, even at death’s door he got his ketchup gag in before he died. Yet, Frisk had become a new adversary, a game changer. The human outweighed his interests, the level of love he had for them matched what he felt for his brother, and the level of LOVE he felt for Frisk tainted him.

How could someone both love and hate a person equally?

Could he ever be true friends platonically, or dare he think- romantically, with Frisk?

“not really…” He choked out a curt laugh. “…probably never work out anyway. their human, i’m monster… plus i’ve got like a hundred and fifty-some years on them… and that ain’t even including all the years from the RESET timelines…” The smile on his face fell, a rare moment, as his breathing calmed. Sans shut his eye sockets and fell asleep.

…

Gaster slowly pulled himself back from the physical world and quietly floated in pitch black of the VOID. If he tried hard enough he could see the CODE that made up the bizarre emptiness of the world he now called home. He could hack the SAVE SCREEN and try to leave a message for the human but he figured it would be a bad idea to interfere. It was always a bad idea to hack, because somehow & someway Sans found out and blame the Human.

“nO.” He told himself, surprised at the sound of his voice. “It WoUlD bE BeTtEr tO TaLk WiTh Frisk iN pErSoN; iF tHeY EvEr DeCiDeD tO HARD RESET.”

He watched as the speech text, written in wing dings, dissolved back into code. Closing his left eye socket, his other one useless thanks to the crack, and let his body dissipate across time & space. This timeline had been the longest out of all the runs; a feeling told him that this might be the one to end all others.

There was always the possibility that Frisk would continue to the E N D.

Gaster would wait.

Chapter Text

...

Chara’s spirit floated next to Frisk, their eyes bleeding black ooze, as they watched their borrowed body dodge the first attack. The pocket knife grazed the blue sweater that Frisk always wore. They weren’t quick enough, however, to dodge a second time and ended up pinned. Chara watched like the outer parasite they were as the boy assaulting their body shattered the bone in their leg. They wondered how many times this was going to happen before Frisk’s spirit gave up and they could claim their body once more. They were tired of fighting for a body; a soul that’d been given to them.

THEY WERE IN CONTROL.

NOT FRISK.

And yet, here they were, floating just outside Frisk’s consciousness. Frisk’s soul was theirs, Chara’s, they should rightfully be the ones controlling T H E I R body! They should be the one with the determination to continue! The determination was in their SOUL, wasn’t it?

If not where was this WILL, this HOPE, to LIVE?

Chara watched on.

…

Frisk stepped out from the human hospital for the third time. This made a total of eighteen RESETS -almost half a year had passed in reset time- roughly fifty four weeks. The trip to the hospital hadn’t been bad; they were carried by Undyne happy to be out about in the world. The doctors at the hospital gave them the usual check-up, re-examined their leg, and took the cast off. The day only turned sour when they tried to get home from the hospital. Ever since Undyne’s protection of Ebott Park hit the papers & news stations, many humans now recognized the Captain of the Royal Guard, and many humans didn’t take kindly to her.

If Frisk & Undyne tried to walk home trouble would start, a riot would break out, humans got hurt, Undyne would get mobbed then killed, and then Frisk would end up in the cross fire. Walking home killed them. So Frisk mentioned taking the bus. It had seemed then next safest option, but then a man stood up, revealing the insignia of a group that promoted Anti-Monster ideals. Producing a semi-automatic he let loose a barrage of fire. Taking the bus killed them. At that point Frisk hailed a taxi, so sure that everything would be fine. They had made it a block before the taxi got rammed from the side, a freak car accident that ended up crushing Frisk in the back seat. Taking a taxi killed them.
Frisk’s last SAVE was at the basket ball court.

Where they had to continue from.

EVER. SINGLE. TIME. THEY. RESET.

In theory, so many things could be changed, but the confrontation with the young humans could not. The possibilities of how to deal with the situation were endless, but the situation itself was unavoidable. Papyrus would always try to stop the humans from furthering their harassment, and that was always a solid ‘it’s going to happen’. What happens afterwards, however, could be changed.

Sometimes Frisk wouldn’t be able to miss the knife that the human produced. In this timeline, before they died, Frisk would watch in horror as Sans “dunked” the human. Not in the funny way where he left them trapped in the basketball hoop, but rather torn to pieces in an inescapable quadrangle of bones. The safest, passive action was to dodge then let the delinquent become violent. Frisk looked down at their leg, recalling the feeling of the break, remembering same conversations with their friends, and thinking that after eighteen times things were getting annoying fast.

Frisk wanted so badly to SAVE.

They’d come a long way, they weren’t going to bank the timeline on a guess, hoping that nothing bad had happened without having enough time to prevent it. So many things could go wrong and it’d be permanent once they SAVED. Of course, finding a save point was half the battle. Normally, Frisk could find the glowing star-shaped light and it would be in the same spot they’d left it, but this was not so much on the surface. Saving on the surface made the stars disappear and they’d have to find another one if they wished to SAVE again. The stars would appear at random, very few stayed in the same spot, it was incredibly tricky to decide when to SAVE. Frisk couldn’t use the stars in the Underground since they too were no longer there.

Huffing out a tired sigh they flexed their leg, free from its cast, and turned to face their “escort”. Undyne stood with her hand on her hips, scowling at the other humans giving them weird looks, many most likely recognizing her from the cover of several news tabloids. Some didn’t bother to paint her in the greatest light; Frisk either for that matter. So much had happened in the two days after Undyne’s defense of Ebott Park. TV stations had flocked to the small monster town at the base of the mountain startling several monsters, some got into battles with humans who didn’t understand how MERCY worked. Quite a few soft resets later and Frisk had managed to keep the news crews from entering the town.

No monsters died.

The timeline continued.

Regrettably, it was short lived. The news hit the general public, and while a small portion of humanity felt sympathy for monsters, some feeling genuine concern, or just some who didn’t care, there were various groups who took this as a sign. A time to take action, and for Frisk it hadn’t been the first time they’d dealt with these …particular humans, most had some sort of fetish or were a part of a group with unsettling ethics.

Two soft resets occurred as soon as they heard who had been kidnapped.

Toriel had been walking towards a human grocery store when they grabbed her. The humans who’d taken her were apart of select group that had a “furry” fetish. Remembering the first time Frisk had to deal with these humans made their stomach churn, the things that they’d done to their mother…it’d been the best thing to just soft reset and warn her not to go to the store the second time around. Yet, not long after figuring out how to deal with Toriel’s disappearance did Alphys go missing. Another group of humans that Frisk was all too familiar with, a secret organization of scientist & biologist that wanted more than anything to be able to study a monster. By study, they meant dissect.

The urge to reset had been automatic.

As soon as Frisk found out about these incidents they simply stepped out into traffic, or walked towards the bridge, or pulled the Real Knife from their phone’s storage & did what they had to do to RESET. Waking up after killing themselves was always painful, but worth it & to them, deserved even. Everything they did in their genocide run, not once but twice, of the very race they were trying to protect meant the torture they received was well earned.

“Heya Punk? What’s eatin’ ya?” Undyne punched them in the shoulder knocking Frisk out of their thoughts.

“Oh, um, just thinking.” Frisk softly replied.

“Ah, yesh, you’re making that face again, what’s with the blank look?” Undyne slapped Frisk’s back rather hard. “Something on your mind? Or someone perhaps?”

“N-No…” Frisk blushed. ‘What is she getting at?’ They tried to avoid getting jabbed in their side by Undyne’s pointy elbows.

“Oh, come on, Chum,” Undyne’s eyebrows wiggled. “It’s funny how I know you’ve flirted with just about every bonehead in the Underground, every monster except one…”

“Undyne really I…” Frisk’s closed eyes opened, staring at Undyne in shock. “Did you just- I mean- I, um, well-”

“HA, I KNEW it! You got a thing for Papyrus’ brother don’tcha!”

“What!?” For a moment Frisk’s control over their body slipped, their eye’s going from a peaceful sea green to a deep red. Regaining their composure they smoothed out their sweater, blushing, and looked anywhere but Undyne.

Slinging an arm around Frisk’s shoulder Undyne leaned in on them. “Look, Pal, no worries alright? I mean, ya helped me out with Alphys, and well…” She blushed from gill to gill. “…point is, I can help ya get together with the numbskull.”

“Undyne, I don’t…” Frisk paused. How did they feel about Sans?

“Frisk s’no problem! I can coach ya, just like I did when I was teaching ya how to cook!”

“Do you think we'll set anything on fire?” Frisk tried not to laugh.

“Uh…not really, but we can try, right?” Undyne said, her arm fist pumping the air. “Were besties, shouldn’t be a problem!”

The two broke out into a fit of laughter but slowly Frisk’s thoughts turned back to how they would get home without any incident. Then like a light bulb turning on, Sans popped into their mind. The small skeleton had a particularly fast moped that’d just recently acquired a side car. Not to mention the driver ‘conveniently’ new a few shortcuts. Pulling out their phone Frisk dialed Sans’ number, they didn’t have it in their list of contacts because it’d been memorized, knowing Sans’ phone number became another reminder that not all of their runs had end happily.

“Whoa, who ya calling Punk?” Undyne asked, leaning over to inspect what Frisk was fiddling with. Frisk gave no response; instead they waited as the dial tone went through. Sans picked up on the third ring.

“Oh, Sans?” … “Yes, this is Frisk.” … “How I got your number? Um, can we discuss that another time?” … “Ok, sure, but I called you for a reason.” … “Can you pick me & Undyne up from the hospital?” … “No, no it’s nothing serious, we wanted a shortcut home.” … “You will? Thank you, Sans. We’ll be just outside Ebott Medical Center.” Frisk hung up and returned their phone to the back of their shorts pocket. Dusting off their hand the turned to tell Undyne the news that they’d be getting a ride home via Sans. Undyne, however, had the biggest Cheshire pointy-toothed grin on her face. It was at that moment that Frisk realized what they’d done.

“Undyne it’s not what it sounds like!”

“WOW! I had NO CLUE we’d be getting this DATE started sooo early!” Undyne flung her head back and gave a hearty laugh.

“Undyne NO!”

“OH-HO-OH, Undyne YES!”

…

Chara looked on at the scene in disgust. Their body blushing as Frisk set themselves up for torment by the Fish-woman. It wasn’t too long after a rather brutal looking noogie that the Creep of the hour showed up looking smug on his pitiful excuse for a motorbike; painted the most obnoxious shade of neon green. Chara’s spirit tugged along as Frisk walked out the glass doors to greet the small skeleton.

They watched the exchange of pleasantries with bland amusement as the Fish-warrior argued with the Trash about who would sit in the lame sidecar. All the while Frisk put out their hands trying to calm the two down before anything else could happen to make them RESET. Eventually they reached an agreement. The Fish secured the sidecar, which seemed to confuse the hell out of the Comedian, because: “you told me you hated being a ‘sidedish’- it made you seasick.”

God they hated that Monsters jokes.

He would be the first to go once they got their body back. Chara hated him, what he’d done to Asriel, all the times he stopped them from trying to take over Frisk’s SOUL, and the way he looked at THEIR body. What was worse was the way Frisk looked back. If they could be sick they would’ve at the sight of their arms wrapped tightly around his stupid vertebra. The way they both blushed when Frisk’s hands advanced to hold onto the lower rib bones because they couldn’t quite grasp his spine.

The Fish-woman kept making snarky comments the entire time. “Hey Sans, you know Frisk might get cold, why don’t you give’em that hoodie you’re always wearing?” “Gosh, I sure hope you hold on tight Frisk, wouldn’t want to fall off!” “Oh, why don’t you sit on his lap Frisk, there’s no way you’d fall off like that! Huh, what’s with the look Sansy? Ah, hahahah!”

The annoying laughter stopped when a rather snug looking helmet was shoved onto the Fish-lady’s head, the visor going down past her eyes. Chara eyed the Garbage as his permanent smile seemed to grow, and getting even larger as Frisk laughed at his antics. Then without warning Chara’s spirit started moving 30 mph as the moped took off from the hospital. The force it took to keep attached to Frisk’s SOUL cut into them, they barely reconnected before a surge of magical energy tore open the universe, sending them barreling though the CODE, and out of the city.

They stopped at the edge of Aboveground, the candidly named town of monsters. Dazed and lacking the will to stay suspended outside their body Chara disappeared back towards the VOID. Soon they would be back in control. Frisk always RESET.

It was never their choice.

…

The air of the city always had a sort of nasty tint to it, the smell, the humidity, and the fact it always seemed to be much hotter than in town. Yet…in that moment when Frisk’s hands gripped Sans’ ribs through the thin material of his shirt, their chest pressed intimately against the ridges of his spine, and chin resting gently on his shoulder blade. The world suddenly felt a little sweeter.

Sans swiftly sped through traffic, bypassing crowds, busses, & taxies. He safely maneuvered them past the other vehicles, helmet on with the visor down, looking like any other human speeding though the smog filled streets. Frisk’s hands gripped him a tighter. Out of all the other monsters he was the last one they hadn’t saved. Sure, during their battle with Asriel in his “hyper-death form” they’d reached out to him, but it’d been momentary. After the all the HARD RESETS Frisk new it would take more than just getting to the surface to revive whatever HOPE Sans had left in him.

They never expected that over time, over so many timelines, they would learn to love him as much as they did.

Sans was as much of an anomaly as Frisk was. They both knew about the different timelines, had at several points discussed them, and learned off of one another. Sans was always a corner stone, no matter what direction they took in the ‘GAME’. Frisk knew him to have several occupations, forever the Judge of Sins, the Comedian, the Serif Brother, scientist, and when pushed –the executioner.

Yet, throughout it all he was their friend.

Frisk could still hear Undyne complaining, trying to force the small helmet off her head, and thought back on her promise to help Frisk obtain a relationship with Sans. The idea itself seemed like a faraway dream. They’d hurt him, numerous ways, and this was the reason why they’d never flirted with him. After everything Frisk had done there was no way he’d ever consider that sort of bond. He was a part of the reason why Frisk tried so hard to END the RESETS. If not for themselves, if not for Asriel, then most certainly for Sans.

The moped accelerated as they turned into a dead end and Frisk closed their already squinted eyes. The feel of Sans’ magic washed out around them, the world ripping open, momentum slowing, the tempo of their universe changing to his tune. Then just as fast as it came, the feeling receded, and Frisk’s eyes were open peering at the picturesque town of Aboveground. Letting out a tense sigh, because teleporting always gave them anxieties, they finally loosened the death grip they had on Sans’ rib cage. They hoped bones didn’t bruise. From there it was a quick, smooth ride to Undyne & Alphys’ house.

“Augh, FINALLY!” Undyne yelled, pulling off the helmet.

“you mean, finally?” Sans snickered, his eye sockets still on the road as he drove, the moped continuing its 20mph cruising speed.

“OH, that is it BONEBOY!” Undyne’s eye shot towards Frisk in a knowing glare. “Have fun, Punk!”

Frisk let go of Sans, an automatic reaction at the sight of the teal spear. Without warning Undyne thrust the spear at the bolt that held the sidecar to the moped, a second later the motorbike jerked sideways as the larger sidecar broke away, Undyne cackling uncontrollably, speeding off the road into her house. Sans’ foot wrenched forward on the gas pedal shocked by the sudden shift in weight and they accidentally accelerated.

Frisk’s hands ended up on the top of his pelvis.

At the contact, another rip in the CODE appeared and no sooner did Frisk remove their hands did they skid to a stop in front of the castle inside Mt. Ebott. Frisk was thrown on impact off the moped, landing on their back and rolling a few feet away. They could hear Sans’ worried curse, the crash of the supped-up bike hitting the concrete floor, and the soft footsteps of Sans’ slipper clad feet running in their direction.

“FRISK!” Sans’ worried voice cut through the stale air of the Underground. “are you alright?”

“Sans its ok, I’m not dead…” ‘Yet.’ They added mentally. Looking up at his worried face, Frisk gave him one of their best smiles. “…I just hurt …everywhere.”

“so patella me, was that supposed to be a joke? ‘cause it kind of fell flat.”

“Ugh…Sans.”

“what’s with the sternum look? i know i’m bone to be wild, but kiddo, you scared the skin off of me!”

“Sans, please…”

“yo, i’d ofemur to help you up but i don’t want to rattle your bones too much. you’ve really gotta stop falling for me, it’s getting f-risky.”

“Just STOP, PLEASE!!!”

“sure, wouldn’t want to rib ya the wrong way.” Frisk blushed, sighing in defeat. They had a terrible feeling that this was one of those moments that would never change, if they chose to go with Sans this is what would most likely always play out.

…and they were going to SAVE it…

Chapter Text

…

King Dreemurr watched as Gerson stepped out of the throne room. The old monster’s gate slow as he leaned on his old hammer, now more of a cane since the ‘head’ fell off, for support. Asgore always enjoyed his conversations with the Ancient. Gerson was one of very few monsters that actually remembered the war, let alone being one of the last survivors who fought in it. The turtle-like monster’s wisdom had helped the King on more occasions than he’d care to count. Softly padding around the chamber he maneuvered gracefully between the many golden flowers that called the palace home. His large maw smiled gently down at the blooms. He always wondered to himself that if he took care of the precious flowers his children had died to retrieve that one day the peace he never felt looking at them would finally find its way to his broken soul.

He wondered if anything could heal him at this point.

Spotting a small tan hat lying on the floor of the small dining table he’d used to entertain guests with Asgore was brought out of his thoughts. ‘Gerson must have left his helmet.’ He thought with a small sad chuckle. Turning swiftly, he glided across the room, entering the throne room and approached the door. As he was about to exit, his large paw-like hand griping the handle, the voice of Gerson and someone else filtered though the wood.

Asgore did his best to steady his breathing as he listened.

“Oh, well, why hello there you’re Highness.”

“My Gerson, it has been some time hasn’t it? How have you been?”

Asgore’s breath stopped at the sound of her voice, palms sweaty, heart racing. Closing his eyes he took in a small breath of air and tried to calm down. It would do him no good to get excited, she was probably in the castle to discuss business, he did work for her school in his free time, and she’d made it clear where her feeling for him remained.

“It has, and I might say I’m doing rather well for an ol’fogy, Wa-ha-ha!”

“Ah… yes. Heh, so I presume that you’ve seen …the King?” Her tone cut Asgore like a knife.

“…hmm…King Asgore? Forgive me, but my memory isn’t what it used to be, my Lady.” Odd, the respect was still present, but Gerson’s voice held a slight edge to it. “If that’s who you’d be looking for then yes, I just came from speaking with his Highness.”

“I see, since he’s in, ah, is there a way that you could, um, give him a message for me?”

“Give him a message? Did I tell you about my memory problem?” Asgore wanted to snort; Gerson’s memory was better now than it’d ever been. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Dreemurr, if you want to relay anything to King Asgore you’ll have to do it yourself.”

He could hear the old man began to shuffle his away from the entrance to the throne room. Asgore took his hand off the door handle and prepared to backtrack when the sound of Toriel’s indignant huff clearly resounded through the door. Pausing, his hackles up, Asgore could practically feel the ire coming off his ex-wife. He started to mentally prepare himself for her arrival.

“I can’t believe I have to talk to that cowardly excuse for a King…” Toriel had said it loud & proud, so sure in her stance that the choices he’d made were imbedded into his SOUL, and he was wrong, and no matter how much he argued his plight, he would never be forgiven in her eyes.

He felt this all though a door, what would happen when he seen her face to face?

“What was that, Madame?” A tremor shot up Asgore’s spine at the sound of Gerson’s low threatening voice.

“Our so-called King, Mr. Gerson, he has done absolutely nothing about the relations with the humans.” Toriel’s voice was sharp as well, opinion strong willed. “He only leaves this forsaken castle to come out & pester me at the school. I swear, if my child didn’t wish him in their life I would-”

“You would what, Mrs. Dreemurr?” Fear swelled up and settled in Asgore’s stomach; slowly he approached the door once more as he pressed his ear against the wood.

“I, um, I would tell him what I came here for.”

“Really and what might that be?” Asgore heard the sound of Gerson’s cane tap the ground harshly. Toriel’s footsteps moved away from the door.

“I w-would tell him t-that he is n-no longer n-needed or wa-wanted at the school.”

For what it was worth she had, most likely, held her ground against one of the most intimidating stare-downs from one of the oldest monsters in their entirety. Asgore would have been impressed had he not felt the crushing reality of what she was saying. Toriel no longer wanted him in any part of her life.

Unwanted, unneeded, unloved.

How it hurt.

“D-Do you understand why I feel this way, Mr. Gerson?”

“Not really, my Lady, but might I give you a little advice before you go in there and tell our good King the news?’

“I s-suppose…”

“Wonderful, hmm, now where to begin…” A sharp crack shook the castle as Gerson’s cane slammed the ground. “First things first, young Lady, for all you seem to spout these foolish hurtful insults to a Monster who has done so muc-”

“But you don’t know-” Another crack from the cane and rubble started to fall from the ceiling.

“SILENCE, you shall not interrupt ME, Madame! Since you’ll only have it your way, I must inform you of your lack of proper address to the official RULER of the Monster Race. These actions are deplorable in my opinion, and you show no respect given your current position as EX-queen.”

“Excuse me? I guess you have more privilege in lecturing me?”

“As the Kings Lead Advisor and Head of State, yes I do. Furthermore, in regards to your callous if not cold actions towards Asgore, I as his friend am willing to set the record straight.” Gerson to a deep breath then let it out slowly as if calming himself down. “What E X A C T L Y do you think would have happened if Asgore would have done as you wished when the second human fell-down?”

“Fell-down? FELL-DOWN… How dare you say that uncouth coward did anything but MURDER a child all for their SOUL, and then not have the gall to fix his mistake?”

“So you believe that right after a war with the whole human race Asgore should have merged with the soul, pass through the barrier, and KILL six more humans? For the barrier to be broken, freeing all of Monster kind to be slaughtered outside this mountain by human vengeance?”

“Asgore would’ve been a literal GOD by then, he would’ve been able to stop-”

“He would become what he fears most, Mrs. Dreemurr.”

“An-And what is that, sir?”

“Heh… a figurative monster.” Another intake of breath, though Asgore couldn’t tell if it came from Gerson, Toriel, or himself. “After all these years, the only thing sparing our race from …genocide was our Kings suffering. He took the brunt of the blame, he made the hard choices, and he my dear Lady met the end result with blood on his hands. It may be wrong by your morals, but he saved many SOULS by standing firm, by giving false HOPE, and it is a shame to think that his forgiveness, his MERCY would come from a human child he’d never willingly mean to kill and not the woman he gave his SOUL too.” Silence met his ears as Gerson once again began his shuffling gate, cane gently tapping the concrete floor.

“May you have a good day, Miss Dreemurr.”

Backing away from the door Asgore took several deep breaths to calm his nerves. Slowly, clumsily, he made his way back to the small dining table and placed Gerson’s hat upon it. Eventually he himself settled down at the opposite end, pouring himself a cold cup of tea. He sat still in his seat for his visitor and the news that perhaps wouldn’t crush his heart as it previously had.

…

Flowey hid behind the gigantic throne his father used to sit and tell him & his siblings in. For all of his life, Asriel had only known the Underground, so it had never really occurred to him why all the other monsters thought the Surface was such a grand place. Life had been fine for him and the others born in the Underground.

Then Chara fell.

The human child what his first taste of how big & bad the outside world could be, and he remembered their encounter with incredible detail; it had become such an important part of his life. At the time the most exciting thing to do in the Underground was play pretend in the Ruins, though at the time it was just called ‘Home’. New Home was being built, and soon he’d be living in what his parents called a “bustling metropolis”. The idea sounded boring to him till Chara came along. At first the fear of having a human in their home worried his parents, but Asriel could see the goodness inside of them. He knew how caring they were just by their touch, the way they’d always share part of his mother’s snail pie with him, by the way their hazel eyes lit up every time he greeted them.

He had no idea they’d change once his family moved to New Home.

Asriel learned that Chara didn’t like the city; it was too busy, too loud. They didn’t go out to play like they had back in the Ruins, they stayed in the house. Then one day, their father introduced them to a monster named W.D. Gaster. Gaster had two sons, two tiny skeleton boys that Asriel liked to play with. He got along great with the smaller of the two, Papyrus, and the other brother, Sans who preferring to follow along with his father. When Chara was with Gaster, Asriel had a lot of time to think about things. How he missed his siblings company. How he wished they’d never moved to New Home. How when he did see Chara, they looked tired, exhausted, and even worse than when they’d left.

Asriel began to not like Dr. Gaster.

Then, one day, the core was up and running. Chara seemed to no longer be needed by Dr. Gaster. Asriel got his sibling back, but by that point Chara was different. They didn’t talk much and preferred to be alone; they would laugh at the oddest things. So to cheer Chara up Asriel suggested making a pie for their father, it seemed like a good idea, and they perked up as they snuck out toward the Ruins to pick buttercups. In that one hour, acting silly searching for flowers, Asriel had his old sibling back.

Then they went home.

A pie was made. A pie was eaten. Their father fell ill. Chara blamed themselves, they laughed so hard when they found out what they’d done, how they almost killed their father. Asriel could still see the large tears streaming down their face as Chara clung to his sweater, laughing like his mother finally told a funny joke. That was the last time he would see his sibling with any sort of emotion on their face, other than a small fake smile.

Asriel watched as Chara put a wedge between them, they no longer played together, they didn’t joke or laugh, but they did talk. They talked about reaching the surface, about how nice it would be if they could repay the Monsters for taking in a monster. At the time he never understood what that had meant. Then Chara made him promise not to tell their parents about the plan.

Then Chara died.

The plan was set in motion, everything was going fine, the Sun was on their faces, Asriel & Chara, both joined together through their SOULS watching the world from atop Mt. Ebott. Chara wanted more, however, they wanted to hurt the humans, they wanted to free the monsters by killing the people who’d hurt them. Asriel held their cold body in his arms. He couldn’t do it, and so he gathered the flowers that he’d came to the surface for, in the process taking fire from the scared humans, and returned to the Underground. He remembered falling, landing on his back with a handful of flowers and Chara’s dead body still clutched in his arms. His vision dulled as he looked up at the sky through the small opening in the ceiling. At this point he realized he’d fallen just the same as Chara had, and with a smile he closed his eyes & turned to dust.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts Flowey’s head turned towards his father, following him into the barrier room where the old man liked to serve tea. It had been a long time since he’d last given his father any thought. Asgore looked old & tired; looked as if the world had crashed down around him, which it most likely had, several times over. Flowey, for the first time in a long time, felt the need to comfort someone. Silently he cursed the seven fragmented SOULS inside him. He was just about to speak when the door to the Throne room opened. Quickly, he hid himself further underneath the table.

“Co-Come in.” Asgore’s gentle voice stuttered as he choked on cold tea. Coughing he cleared his throat and tried again. “Please, come in."

Flowey watched silently as his mother slowly padded into the chamber. Her hands were clasped and her head was down. Asgore simply put down the small china teacup and got up from his seat.

“Toriel, what do I owe the honor?” His words made her flinch.

“I came here today to discuss a few things that have been weighing on my mind …my Lord.”

“There is no need for such stuffy titles, Toriel, but please continue.”

Flowey wrapped himself around the leg of the table his small black eyes moving back and forth between his two parents. You could literally cut the tension with a toy knife. The long silence was finally interrupted by his mother.

“Asgore, I…” She paused, her brow scrunched up as she gave weight to her next words. “…I think we should start over.”

“Wh-What?”

“I realized that, while I may have said I would give you a second chance, I might not have meant it at the time. I may have never truly comprehended how taxing all of …this must have been for you.” She sighed. “Perhaps this is what Frisk meant when they asked me to reassess my feelings for you.” She started to cry. “At the end of the day…I still miss you. We used to be so close, and if Asriel & Chara hadn’t died-” She choked on a sob. “Why did it have to be this way?”

Asgore stood tall and silent. He didn’t go and comfort Toriel like Flowey thought he would. Instead the King turned away from her, bent down and caressed one of the golden flowers growing in his garden. Knelling he dug his large paw into the soil beneath the bloom, digging up the small plant, cradling it in his arm. Turning back to Toriel he offered her the flower. Asriel blinked back the small tears forming in his eyes, because wasn’t that gesture just like his father? Any normal person would’ve plucked the flower, killing it, but he simply up rooted it giving it the option to live on. Asgore could barely kill a flower, how in the Underground did anyone think he could kill six humans?

“Please do not shed anymore tears for the past. It is true that I miss you, I shall always love you, but listen when I say this: I am no coward. I did what I had to do to keep HOPE, so that our kind didn’t succumb to the darkness we found ourselves living in, and was fully prepared to live with the consequences. I may not have actively sought out the fallen ones, but I understood what had to be done when they came before me & I gave them plenty of warning. I am sincerely sorry for all that has transgressed. By no means did I wish to hurt you, Toriel, but this was never just about you.”

“I-I understand.”

Flowey watched as Asgore handed the small flower, dirt, roots, and all over to his mother. It was like watching a peace treaty being made, and perhaps that’s just what it was. Without another word the ex-queen left, dirt trailing her departure. The Kings arms held limply at his sides, he turned and sat down in the small chair to stare at the empty tea cup, the throne room’s door closed, and Asgore’s gave heavy sigh.

“To be honest,” Asgore said to himself. “…there are times when I wish everything would just RESET. That the world could just continue in a constant loop so that I may pay for the sins I’ve committed, so that I may be punished, or perhaps so they could see the fear of what Humanity can do to our kind. It only took one human to SAVE us all, but one human could kill us all as well. Either way, any path would be a kind of MERCY."

Flowey slid down towards the ground, his petals touching the dirt floor as he took in his father’s words. He hadn’t understood that his actions could have caused his father to reach this point. That death seemed to be the only comfort the older monster had to look forward to. Digging himself into the ground Flowey reappeared in the throne room and once more looked up at the large chair. His mother’s chair sat a ways behind it, covered in a white cloth. The borrowed fragments of his SOUL came to life, and he was filled with the determination to set everything right. A noise at the door made him jump out of his reflections.

“Mom?”

“Oh, F-Frisk…”

“Mom, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thank you, but may I ask why you’re here?”

“Um, I just have to talk to …Dad, and before you ask, Sans dropped me off. He's down in the Nursery, if you wanted to go speak with him.”

“O-Oh, I'll keep that in mind. Well, now, I have a few errands to run… I-I’ll see you at home. Good-bye, my child.”

Flowey heard his mother walk away. As the handle to the throne room began to turn Flowey dug into the ground beneath him. The only thought he had on his mind was that slimy Trashbag had once again came into contact with Frisk and was waiting in the old Judgment Hall.

Time for a little blackmail.

Chapter Text

…

He materialized outside of the VOID, his body shifting & reforming as it tried to catch up to his hasty escape. Shaking off the fear of them Gaster floated just inside the castle. Noticing the pillars, the stained glass windows, and golden flowers he realized he was in the renovated Judgment Hall.

Quickly, he found the sleeping body of his son. Taking an unneeded deep breath he hovered over Sans and contemplated entering his mind. Assuming his son’s point of view felt like wearing a costume too small, at best a cheap way to feel like he was still a part of the world, but it still easier that hacking into the CODE for a fragmented moment.

A loud clomping sound made him pause and instead he looked upon the scene dejectedly. He watched as Papyrus shuffled around the hall, looking for something before spotting a medium sized flower pot. His younger son picked it up and began his way towards the King’s chamber. Sans then opened one of his sleep filled eye socket and got up.

‘CuRiOuS.’ Thought Gaster.

He followed his oldest son over to where Papyrus had picked out the pot and drifted around Sans as he examined the area. A large frown appeared on Sans’ face as he looked down at the gardening paraphernalia. In that same moment he felt the presence of another soul enter the room.

A shattered soul.

“I wonder what you’re going to be thinking, Son.” No sooner did the box with his words typed in Wing Dings disappear had Gaster once again phased into Sans’ mind.

…

“Howdy.”

A chill ran down his spine as he stood up, letting the clay pot in his gloved hand crash to the floor. Sans turned to look back at the entrance to the ‘Nursery’. There, taller than any of the other flowers, swayed one with a face. A monster flower.

“flowey.”

“Awe, Sans… you remembered me! How sweet of you.” The flower gave a dark chuckle. “My, oh my, will you just look at what Asgore did to the J U D G E M E N T hall?”

“yeah, Asgore just flourishes in this kind of environment.”

“HA, HA. You know for a nihilist and a complete PILE OF WASTE, you sure never get tired of that running gag.”

“oh rubbish,” Sans closed his right eye and tried to look bashful. “…but you know flowey, for some reason, one I can’t put my boney-finger on, I get this retched feeling that you don’t like me.” His left eye stayed open and trained on the flower.

Every fiber of Sans’ being screamed at him how familiar this scene was, minus the flora. Once again he was faced with what he’d started to deem his old job. He’d always felt jumpy around the flower and could never pinpoint exactly why, but now, with the monster directly in front of him and his special ability to see a person’s LV he knew the answers to his questions. His magic surged into his left eye socket, creating a familiar cyan & yellow glow.

“Oooooh, scary. What are you going to do, judge me?”

“only if you take one step closer you little weed.”

“Golly goodness! Well, if were stooping to name calling then I suppose you won’t mind me calling you SMILEY?”

A strange feeling washed over him at the sound of the word coming from the deranged plant. Déjà-vu taken to the extreme. The back of his mind was telling him that he had run in to this plant sometime before in his past, but he’d never actually remembered anything. Pain started to seep into the back of his skull as he felt the migraine commence. ‘Funny, I really don’t have a brain.’ He thought. ‘I need to write that one down…’ The pain got to be so bad he ended up on his knees clutching his skull.

“Gee, that looks like it hurts. You are trying to remember the RESETS before Frisk aren’t you?”

The flower came closer, but it was all he could do to keep his eye open.

“Awe, poor GARBAGE MAN, you should be happy. If it weren’t for all the RESETS I put you through your poor little SOUL wouldn’t have been able to remember any of the timelines. Of course, there’s something else helping you isn’t there?” Flowey gave him a sadistic smile. “But I’m not here today to discuss our past.”

Sans was in the middle of counting to one hundred when he finally looked up at Flowey. The pain had started to recede and he was able to concentrate once more. Standing up, albeit shakily, Sans glared down at the offending plant monster.

“listen buddy, it’s a beautiful day outsid-”

“The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, I’m going to hell… bla, bla, bla, bla…” Flowey scoffed at him. “Like I said, not interested in your cute little judge routine. I’m here to discuss Frisk.”

“what about Frisk?” He took a menacing step towards the flower. “if your thinking about hurting the kid you’d be in for a-”

“Bad time… yeah, heard that one too, Mr. SPOILED TOMATO. No, I’m here to keep Frisk from something vile, dangerous, and just downright disgusting: you!” The flower started to grow, getting bigger & bigger till he was almost as tall as Papyrus. “S T A Y A W A Y F R O M F R I S K!” Large droplets of dew dripped from the freakish face of Flowey as he leaned over Sans in an attempt at intimidating him.

“ok, bucko, you really need to get out of my nasal fossa, cause seriously, you smell like fertilizer and if you think for a moment i’m gonna just sit back and take this …you’ve lost all your petals. maybe you don’t know this, but i believe in karma, and bud, you’ve got nineteen levels worth of hell to get dragged through.”

“I suppose I should be frightened!” Flowey backed off returning to his normal height. “I have a SOUL now, boo-hoo, you can use your Karmatic Retribution, wan-wan, I should be shaking in fear of the mighty, deadly, SMILEY TRASHBAG!!! OH THE MONSANITY!!!”

“you’ve been hanging out with mettaton haven’t you.” Sans deadpanned.

“NOT on purpose, but were getting off track.” Sans angrily eyed the flower as it unwrapped a piece of paper from its stem. “Take a look at this.”

The paper in question fluttered to the floor face side down. Using his magic a bone shot up through the ground into the paper and made its way into his waiting hand. He been prepared to take his eye off the flower for only a moment, look at the paper, scoff at the obvious bluff, and get back to business.

That’s not what ending up happening.

The oddest thought in his mind was he’d recognized the art style. Alphys had drawn him before, a sketch of him and his brother last year for Christmas, but this, this was…unholy. Not in a bad way, and the idea of framing it crossed his mind, but it most certainly wouldn’t go up on his mantle. Maybe in his sock drawer...

“w-wow, didn’t know you felt this strongly about us, bud. gonna have to have a talk with Alph about who she commissions to…” He tried to laugh but the picture of him & Frisk doing the Monster version of the deed was literal staring him right in the face. “…i know i ain’t got nobody but is it getting hot in here? heh, heh.”

“Seriously, that’s all you have to say about this? Do you really think Alphys would draw this TRASH, without having some sort of proof behind it?”

“uh, is that a trick question?”

“PUH-LEASE, and don’t give me that look, I know how you ogle over Frisk, you’re always taking them out to eat or flirting with them, but you don’t deserve them. Who do you think they turn to when things go wrong? It surely isn’t you.”

“excuse me, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, oh-ho-ho-ho-HO! You don’t REMEMBER?”

“re-remember what?”

“Come now, you must have written it down, you make notes about everything, and there is NO WAY you’d let the information you gained from THAT run slip by.”

“what the HELL are you talking about?” Sans was getting frustrated.

“Oh well, it’s not the first time you’ve been left out of the loop, ha-ha-ha!”

Flowey’s manic laughter set Sans on edge. The panic-y feeling from before came back, bringing with it the migraine, his vision blurred as he stared down at the picture in his hands. Suddenly it was literally ripped from his grasp, the corners still clutched in his hands. Why didn’t he deserve Frisk? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? The kid was the one who killed everyone, right? It’d always been their choice, hadn’t it?

A piece of the puzzle was missing, more than just a piece, a chunk.

“There, there, no need to get so emotional over it, but for pleasantries sake let’s just say this little picture won’t make it onto the cover of any news papers or slipped under any goat-mother’s doors if you don’t start to distance yourself from Frisk.”

“are you- are you trying to blackmail me?” Sans said in disbelief.

“I’m not trying anything; I am blackmailing you, GREASE BALL.” Flowey stuck his tongue out at him.

“well then,” Sans eye flared up, despite the pain, as rage coursed through his SOUL. “…be glad you’ve got a lubricant, because you’re about to get fuc-”

“UGH, did you NOT hear what I said earlier? Kill me and what do you think Frisk will do? Hmm? I’m not sure you recall when their last SAVE was? Do you think they won’t kill themselves just to bring me back? Then they’ll have to go through the pain of getting their bones broke all over again.” Flowey made a sad face, pouting up at him, mocking him.

“number one: stop fucking cutting me off. number two: why would they? there’s no way the kid would do something that nice for the likes of you. who knows what you had to do to get that amount of LOVE. i bet the kid doesn’t even know about your LV.”

“On the contrary, Frisk knows everything about me. Who I really am, what I’ve done, and possibly… what I’m going to turn into. YOU, however, you they don’t know anything about. You keep your secrets locked up tighter than Papyrus’ chastity belt.”

“leave my brother out of this.”

“Hmph, why? Papyrus is a grown up, he can handle himself. Why just the other day he was over at the human library looking up human anatomy books.”

“what are you getting at? Papyrus would’ve told me if he were going to the library…”

“Not if he was looking to do something you disapproved of, Mr. CONTROL FREAK. Ah, I’m gonna have a hard time convincing him not to push you & Frisk together.”

“Papyrus has seen,” Sans gestured to the paper. “…that?”

“Not only has he seen it, but he has another drawing, one less intimate, but still GROSS in my own opinion. Blegh…”

Sans forced down the sudden foreboding feeling that the world was crashing down around him. His face fell, Papyrus had been sneaking around behind his back looking at…porn. Frisk slowly but surely began growing up and looking all the more appealing. The knowledge that perhaps there was more to the RESETS than just some childish whim to relive the GAME.

His own forgotten sins…

When had things started to change?

“you know what, fuck it. let’s all go to hell one more time.”

Sans stepped forward and activated the battle before Flowey had a chance to escape. The area around them turned black & white as the battle screen came down in front of each monster. The sound of Sans’ battle theme echoed though the high ceilings. He liked his battle theme; it had the same little tunes as Papyrus’ and in the middle a tiny hint of his father’s. The sound seemed to give him a boost of energy; it almost felt as if Gaster were there with him.

…

Gaster watched, hovering just over Sans’ shoulder as the two monsters went back and forth. The two bantered with each other, using insults, jokes, the attacks were about as brutal as it got. Sans’ Karmatic Retribution did its work against Flowey’s LV 19 SOUL, then the tables would turn & Sans’ would teleport out of the way from Flowey’s (usually) unavoidable circle of friendliness pellets. This went on for quite a while, neither party willing to give mercy, well, Sans offered to spare the flower, but Flowey knew how that trick ended.

Sans had started to slow down, he was getting tired despite Papyrus’ recent forced training sessions and the introduction of weekly basketball practice. Yet, his bone set up had changed since the last time he (supposedly) fought the flower. Flowey hadn’t memorized the new pattern & began to slip up. They were wearing each other down.

One hit to kill or prolonged one damaged hits.

Gaster sighed, either way Frisk was going to RESET if they didn’t wise up or realize that killing one another wasn’t going to solve anything. He didn’t fault Sans for feeling malice towards the once Prince of Monsters, but he thought Sans had grown out of his ‘vengeance’ stage. Then again, Asriel had a habit in his flower form to pick at just the right scabs to get any monster fighting mad.

A few carefully timed Gaster Blasters had the flower’s health cut down in half. A pun about mowing Flowey down. Three narrowly missed circles of pellets. A long string of garbage/skeleton related insults. ‘hOw OlD aRe ThEsE tWo?’ Gaster pondered to himself. He went to rub the ridge right above his nasal cavity but remembered his face had melted over the hole for his nose.

Sometimes he really hated his existence.

Everything looked like it would be reaching a climax soon, Sans had the upper hand, Flowey was on the last ten points of his health bar. If the plant didn’t give MERCY now he would die. ‘NoT tHaT Sans wOuLd LiKeLy TaKe It, BuT hOpEfUlLy Sans WiLl WaKe Up AnD …sMeLl ThE…fLoWeRs.’ Gaster groaned at his own unintentional pun.

‘I hAvEn’T mAdE a PuN sInCe Dot…’ He cut his thoughts off. ‘Is ThErE a PoInT tO tHiNkInG oF sOmEtHiNg UnFiXaBlE?’ He asked himself. ‘hMm, NoT rEaLlY…’

Gaster had distracted himself from the fight, but for him it was monotonous, one would die, Frisk would RESET, the story would move forward after an agonizing three weeks of recovery. Yet, just as he was about to return to the VOID and possibly face their wrath, Frisk ran into the room, followed by Papyrus & Toriel.

With a his jaw slowly falling open he watched as Frisk broke through the battle square, a blinding yellow & red light penetrating the monotone color, as their hands dug into the soft soil pulling Flowey out of the ground and up above their head. Time slowed down as Sans realized what was happening and tried to stop his attack by stopping time completely, but inescapable square of bones cut into Frisk’s body.

Everyone in the room watched the slow motion death of their Ambassador.

Sans had fallen to his knees in shock, eye sockets wide with panic, recalling his attack.

Frisk’s body fell to the ground and everyone except Sans rushed over to the fallen human.

Gaster stood silently next to Papyrus, unseen, as the tall skeleton threw himself on the ground next to Frisk, the flower pot in his hands broken in shards on the ground. Papyrus howled with sadness, large tears falling onto Frisks ripped face, fragments of their skull’s bones protruding out of their right eye. Toriel stood stiff, her eyes wide, filled with tears & pain as she momentarily looked through Sans then down at her dead child in the arms of their murderer’s brother. Everywhere she looked had been covered in blood.

Gold & Red.

Flowey said nothing.

A heartbeat later had the three visible monsters taking a step back from the fallen human. Sans, whose face showed just as much awe as his hidden father witnessed Frisk’s soul floated above their body, it looked normal enough -still heart shaped- but a series of small cracks leaked golden light. The bright beams shot out in between oozing black trails of goo on the silhouette of red determination. A beam made its way thought Gaster.

Looking at Frisk filled him with hope.

…

“What were you thinking jumping into that battle, tearing up MY body!”

“I couldn’t let Sans kill Asriel.”

“So you let him kill you instead? What do you LIKE the punishment deals out? You really are a ~F R E A K~."

“At least I’m not a Furry.”

“Oh, that’s real mature coming from a Necrophiliac."

“Look, I don’t have time for your GAMES!” Frisk’s spirit pushed its golden light out of their body enveloping the save screen & temporally making Chara disappear.

…

(CONTINUE)

…

(YES)

Chapter Text

…

Frisk’s hands ended up on the top of Sans pelvis and as soon as they grasped the smooth bone they felt it, and of course it would have to be at such an embarrassing time.

They SAVED.

Then just like before, Sans ripped a hole in the CODE and as soon as Frisk remove their hands from his pelvis they skidded to a stop in front of the castle inside Mt. Ebott. Once more, Frisk was thrown off the moped, landing on their back a few feet away. Sans cursed again, the bike hit the concrete floor again, and Sans was running in their direction again.

“FRISK! …are you alright?” He did a double take, but otherwise shook it off.

“Sans its ok, I’m not dead…” ‘But I was...’ Frisk thought, looking up at his worried face, Frisk gave him a weak smile & repeated what they had once before. “…I just hurt …everywhere.” ‘Grit your teeth you can make it through this.’

“so patella me, was that supposed to be a joke? ‘cause it kind of fell flat.” San’s face looked confused for a moment.

“Hmm...” Frisk tried to look annoyed with him.

“…uh…what’s with the sternum look? i know i’m bone to be wild, but kiddo, you scared the skin off of me!” He was grinding his teeth.

“Sans, please…” Frisk just wanted this to stop.

“yo, i’d ofemur to help you up but i don’t want to rattle your bones too much. you’ve really gotta stop falling for me, it’s getting f-risky.” He tried to laugh, but Frisk was sure he started to realize he’d told that pun before.

“Just STOP, PLEASE!!!” They were desperate.

“sure… wouldn’t want to… rib ya the… wrong way.” Sans said in a way as if he was trying to fully grasp the situation while offering Frisk his shaking hand. “uh, kid, i think we need to talk.”

“Yeah, we do.” Frisk said, allowing Sans to pull them up off the ground. “But first we need to keep going.” They had a few scraps & bruises but nothing major to keep them from heading forward.

“uh, ok?”

“Sans, come on.” As soon a Frisk grabbed Sans’ gloved hand they were pulled back as he fell to one knee. “Sans? Sans are you alright?”

“this has happened before hasn’t it?” He looked a little queasy.

“Yeah, um, do you think you can walk?”

“sure, hey kiddo what month is it?”

“March?” ‘That question was out of the blue, oh wait a minute! Blue! ’ Frisk completely closed their eyes as they braced themselves for the punch line.

“oh, gezz, aren’t you getting pushy. i’ll go at my own pace, thank you.”

“…” Frisk watched as Sans tilted his head before he deliberately stood up on his own.

“come on, haven’t you heard of standup comedy?”

“…” Any urge of helping him vanished as they started walking towards the castle.

“Frisk, buddy, pal, amigo, chum, it was just a joke!”

“I know Sans.”

“so…have you heard it before?”

“Sans, stop baiting me.” Two could play his game.

“hey, do i look like a skeleton who fishes? only dino-ladies do that.”

Ba-dum-tss.

“Did you actually download “Rimshot” onto your phone?”

“do i criticize you for downloading flirty pickup lines on yours? speaking of which, how come ya never throw any of your …zingers my way?”

Frisk watched as he blushed blue once more. ‘So he wants me to flirt with him?’ An odd giddiness filled them with determination… and something else, but they really didn’t think it through.

“Hey, can I follow you home?”

“ye-yeah, but why?”

“My parents always told me to follow my Dreemurr’s.” Frisk watched as Sans turned a bright shade of blue he instantly turned away from them, it made them happy & their stomach fill with what felt like butterflies.

“heh…heh… i don’t judge, but pal, is that all you got? i mean you even took my bit.”

Frisk knew he was just getting defensive but it still stung.

“… hey, what’s with the weird look, kid?”

“Sans… I know life is short but could you please stop with the jokes, I’m getting tired of you killing me.”

“Frisk, wow. low blow, buddy.” Sans’ shoulders sunk. “i didn’t mean for it to happen, ya know.”

“S-Sorry, I guess I’m still a little peeved. There’s a lot to think about right now.” ‘Like how you keep calling me kid.’ Frisk sighed as they made their way through the MTT resort, into the elevator, and punched in the correct floor. Perhaps they could try & change the subject?

“Do you recall last week when we were eating that pasta dinner with Papyrus?”

“look ace, we eat pasta for breakfast, brunch, lunch, linner, dinner, & desert, could you be more specific?”

“The day I made garlic bread & Papyrus kept calling them bread sticks?”

“they were bread sticks, but yeah i know what day you’re referring to.”

“Well, I was thinking the next time I come over I could cook again.”

“ok, sure.”

They usually weren’t one for small talk, & time spent with Sans either ended in heated debates, bad puns, or just awkward silence. Now thanks to their previous flirting it was embarrassing awkward silence. Frisk watched him rock back & forth on his heels. He wore sneakers for once. The silence was getting to them.

“ya know all this walking kinda sucks. i could just, uh, use one of my shortcuts.”

“Yeah, that would be easy, but we didn’t take a shortcut before. We, uh, can’t really risk getting off track; I don’t know how it will affect the timeline.” Frisk heard his sudden audible gulp.

“be-before? you mean, as in, the last RESET?”

“Yes.”

“do you- uh, are you willing to talk about it?”

“Why did you fight Flowey?” Ok, they were more than a little peeved at him.

“um, next question.”

“Sans.”

“Frisk.”

“This is why we can never get anywhere, I always end up telling you everything and you only give me bits & pieces to go by.” Frisk let out a frustrated sigh & turned away from him.

“everything, you sure about that, kiddo?”

‘Kiddo…’ Frisk grit their teeth as their body tensed up; they felt Sans eye-less sockets bore into their back. “Mostly, more than what you tell me.” They heard him snort in frustration.

“amazing, aren’t we a pair. a dirty liar & a dirty brothe-”

“Don’t even go there, Sans.”

“why not? huh? that’s the truth isn’t it? no matter how many times you RESET i’ll still remember what you did to him.”

Frisk had turned to face him, they weren’t necessarily cramped in the elevator, but the tight space wasn’t helping the raising anger. Still, the two backed up at opposite ends of the small square room, the cube-like space all too similar to a battle box. Magic & determination, energy in general hummed around the human as they locked gazes with the monster. Frisk contemplated their words carefully.

“You eat dog residue for breakfast.” Frisk watched as the shock slowly formed on Sans’ face.

“wh-what?”

“Look it up when you get back to your lab, nerd.”

The elevator dinged, sounding that they’d reached their destined floor as Frisk exited with a very blue-in-the-skull skeleton. They didn’t talk at all. Frisk especially said nothing as they left Sans behind without so much as a pause when they reached the Nursery, walking straight past their most recent death site.

Plenty of change would be coming their way once Sans reached his lab, they needed to be quiet now, they’d be explaining everything later.

…

He was sure they hadn’t noticed him following them.

The sound of Papyrus’ heavy footfalls dimly echoed in the now overgrown Judgment Hall. The stain glass widows providing interesting patterns of golden light onto the flowers of the same color. The large stone tiles that’d once covered the floor had been removed for what was now called the Nursery. The smell of the opening buds almost overwhelmed the tall skeleton as he made his way around the various vines and pots.

‘AH, POTS. THAT’S WHY I’M HERE!’ He thought. Alphys had accidentally dropped Flowey’s pot, which is why he’d gone to the Nursery in the castle to find a new one.

A loud fake sounding snore caught his attention.

Standing in the middle of two large pillars, booted feet sinking in the soft soil, Papyrus spotted his brother. Sans was sitting in the corner next to a rather large bloom, asleep. A typical sight, one he’d seen more than a few thousand times, but to be honest he never understood how his brother could fall asleep anywhere. If it didn’t annoy him so much he might’ve been impressed. Thoroughly displeased he stomped over to where his brother had slid to the floor for a nap, his boots protesting the whole way sinking further into the soil, and eventually loomed over his older sibling.

“SANS!! WAKE UP, YOU LAZYBONES!!!” Papyrus struck a pose, pointing to the air with dramatic flourish.

Sans snored even louder.

“BROTHER!!! YOU WILL WAKE UP THIS INSTANT OR I SHALL PICK YOU UP AND TURN YOU INTO A BONE-RATTLE!!!” He tried to make the hallow threat sound convincing.

“mmmh… bro, good one, but don’t you think it’s a little…” Cracking an eye-socket open Sans looked up.

“SANS.”

“infantile.”

“ENGHH…SANS WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?”

“ah, Paps don’t be a baby-bones. hey, what are you here for anyway?”

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM IN SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT FLOWER POT FOR…” Just then Papyrus remembered his brother’s dislike for a certain flower monster. “...neh heh …never mind.”

“eh, Papyrus? you sorta weaned off there.” Sans got up from the floor and leaned suspiciously towards his brother.

“SANS, FOR THE LOVE OF-” If Sans was continuing his puns perhaps he dodged that particular bullet?

“who’s the flower pot for?” The lights in Sans eyes were out and Papyrus began to sweat.

Papyrus wasn’t used to his older brother being so serious. He remembered back in the Underground how different Sans had been: lazy and relaxed to the point where no matter what Papyrus said nothing seemed to faze him. Yet for the past couple of years, mostly since they met Frisk and started living on the surface, his brother listened more. Too many times had Papyrus felt he’d caught Sans off guard with what he was saying to him, unlike before where it seemed like Sans knew what he’d say even before it left his jaw.

Had their brotherly bond lost its connection?

“UH… NONEOFYOURBUISNESS.” Him lying probably wasn’t helping. ‘NEH, EVER SINCE REACHING THE SURFACE I’VE BECOME QUITE ROGUE! ’ Papyrus thought, sweating with his actions.

Sans blinked. Then blinked again in shock. “par-don?” He sing-songed the syllables.

“I, I SAID IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.” Papyrus stomped his foot & turned around.“I, LIKE YOU, AM OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE MY OWN SECRETS!”

“old enough? please, pap, your hardly even 153.”

Spinning back around to face the shorter skeleton Papyrus’ right eye glowed orange with his anger. “MONSTER LAW SAYS SO, ONCE YOU TURN 150, I AM AN ADULT! THANK. YOU. VERY. MUCH!” Papyrus’ face turned a bright orange in annoyance.

“yeah barely, though if you go by the monster=human scale your only 15.” Sans snickered.

“WELL THEN, MR. 176, YOU’RE NOT EVEN 18! THAT MEANS THAT FRISK IS OLDER THAN YOU!” Sans turned a bright shade of blue which only fueled his rant. “AH-HA, SO YOU DO LIKE THE HUMAN! DON’T YOU BROTHER! ADMIT IT; FRISK MAKES YOUR KNEES KNOCK! NEY, HEH, HEH!!!”

“if that’s supposed to be a idiot-m for something i ain’t got a clue, Paps.”

Papyrus slapped both of his gloved hands on his brother’s shoulders. “OH, HULLABALOO!!! FRISK GIVES YOU A...” Papyrus pulled him in closer. “…boner.” He said it quietly as to not embarrass Sans too much & in a way so that his obvious uninformed elder brother could process what he’d just told him.

“there are no words Paps, literally none, to describe how i feel right now.” Sans ended up looking like he had a blueberry for a skull.

“HMM…WELL, HEH, YOU LOOK A LITTLE BLUE TO ME, NEY-HEH-HEH…” Papyrus just couldn’t help himself whenever he got the upper hand on Sans. “…HEH.”

“ok, that’s it.” Sans slapped his younger sibling away. “i’m the one who sapph-fires the puns in this family, and i…” Sans took a huge gulp of air; feeling a bit like a blue goldfish. “…uh, Frisk is justafriend.”

“NEY-HEH, JUST A FRIEND, THEN WHY WERE YOU SO BLUE EARLIER COMING OUT OF THE ELEVATOR? OR LAST WEEK AFTER THEY SHARED THEIR BREAD STICK WITH YOU AT DINNER? OR THREE WEEKS AGO WHEN YOU LITERALLY BENT TIME & SPACE TO SAVE THEIR LIFE? OR WHEN-”

“GEZZ PAPYRUS I GET IT! OK, I LIKE ‘EM ALRIGHT. I’VE GOT A CRUSH, SO WHAT? IT’S NOT LIKE…they like… me.”

“Sans you- you never talk in caps.”

“yeah, and you never NOT talk in caps, what’s your point?”

“Do you ever think it’s mo-MORE THAN A CRUSH?” Papyrus’ voice jumped in excitement.

“Paps, look …its complicated, and besides didn’t you have something to find? I think that flower pot over there is pretty nice…”

“EH…NOT REALLY, BROTHER.”

Sans gave him a particular sour face that he didn’t understand at all. What justified that look? Papyrus watched as his brother visibly deflated, looking even more tired than usual, and felt a surge of guilt. Perhaps it had been a bit cruel of him to egg his brother on in such a way.

“are you sure, Paps? you don’t want to, ah i don’t know, take a look at it? for peat’s sake?”

“PEAT? AS IN THE MOSS? YOU WERE STRECHING FOR THAT ONE.”

“Paps, don’t insult me, you know i never exercise-”

“NEY-”

“-without you.”

The two gave a jovial laugh and Papyrus went over and picked up the flower pot his brother had suggested. After giving in a closer look it appeared in good condition and would have been the exact thing he’d pick up. ‘It’s amazing how Sans knows me so well.’ He thought to himself, once again in awe of his brother’s weird abilities.

“WELL THEN SANS, I”LL BE OFF. I’M GOING TO SEE ASGORE & CHEER HIM UP A BIT!”

“ok, say “hi” to Frisk while you’re at it!” Sans’ skull dusted itself blue, comprehending what he’d just said. “Paps, wa-wait!”

“OH, I WILL BROTHER –I’LL MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO TELL THEM YOU SAID “HI”– NEY-HEH-HEH!!!” His voice became teasing, going up a pitch as he dashed out of the Nursery towards his next destination.

…

“…HEH.” Gaster heard the last faint echoes of Papyrus’ unique laugh as he turned away from the doorway and back to Sans.

“oh, my sweet asgore.” Sans eye twitched. “i’ve *snort* created a monster.” Sans said to no one but himself.

Presumably, Gaster pondered if Sans’ knew he was in the same room with him. ‘That pun was horrible.’ He could only shake his head as he watched the short skeleton move to stand in his usual spot in the middle of the old Judgment Hall. Like before, only less sneaky, Flowey popped up at the far end in a small patch of soft soil.

“This will be interesting.” Both Sans & Gaster said at the same time.

Chapter Text

…

“Hello, young one, how fairs you this fine evening?” Startled Frisk looked up to see the old turtle Monster staring kindly at them.

“Hi, Mr. Gerson, uh, I’m fine. How are you?” ‘This hadn’t happened before…’ They thought worriedly to themselves.

“Heh, I’m just loitering on my way. I recently spoke to your father & mother.”

“Mom’s here?” Frisk face fell as they recalled seeing her in the last timeline. “Ah, how is Dad doing?”

“Ol’King Fluffybuns? Why he’s doing fine, we were just reminiscing old times together, going over the odd jobs we’ve accrued.” The old turtle-like monster gave them a sly smirk. “Know this, little Angel, they say that to move forward you must examine the past, but I’m lucky if I remember what I had for lunch! Wa-ha-ha!”

Frisk let a small giggle escape them, Gerson’s loud laugh being rather infectious.

“Presently, I must be hobbling on my way; I’m late for my meeting with Undyne.”

“Ha-ha, well she should be home… but Mr. Gerson, be careful, uh, you see-”

“No need to worry about me, youngster, I know a shortcut, Wa-ha-ha!” He winked at them.

Their eyebrows shot up as Frisk’s eyes opened wide. They watched Gerson shuffle off down the corridor, turn to the wall, and walk through it. Holding their breath they went up to the wall he’d disappeared into and placed their hand on the smooth hard stone.

That was new.

Stepping back from the recent oddity they began walking down the rest of the corridor that went up to Asgore’s Throne Room. Hiding out of sight Frisk peered around the corner to watch as Toriel stood still holding a drooping golden flower in her large paws. They knew the woman would probably stand there for quite some time before they went over and talked to her; the world had become quite predictable like that. Yet, if they waited too long sometimes people would continue on without them, it was as if the world paused for them, waiting just long enough for Frisk to take action.

Their existence was confusing in that sense.

Sans had become an inadvertent control for this sort of theory Frisk currently worked on. The inhabitants of the world, when meant to interact with Frisk, waited to do so. Literally sat/stood patiently for Frisk to get there and discuss whatever it was that needed to be shared with their person. Like the way Sans acted the second time they’d fallen off the bike, he’d joke, but seeing him unknowingly repeat the same words & phrases, being forced to respond in kind, always gave them chills. It always freaked Frisk out. In spite of that, the world had to keep moving forward.

So taking a deep breath Frisk continued.

…

“Mom?”

Toriel jumped. “Oh, F-Frisk…” Startled Toriel clutched the golden bloom to her chest as the small Human walked towards her.

“Mom, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thank you, but may I ask why you are here?” ‘Now is not a good time.’ Toriel thought.

“Um, I just have to talk to …Dad, and before you ask, Sans dropped me off. He’d down in the Nursery, if you want to go speak with him.”

“O-Oh, I’ll keep that in mind.” ‘I’m not sure why, but I DON’T want to see him...’ Toriel shook off the weird feeling of anger & sadness. “Well, now, I have a few errands to run... I’ll see you at home. Good-bye, my child.” Toriel turned swiftly past Frisk in an attempt to move on; she knew that her eyes were probably still red from the tears she’d cried a few moments earlier.

“W-Wait!”

Toriel’s hackles stood on end, feeling caught up in guilt, recalling not just a few minutes ago getting reamed out in the same spot. Slowly, she turned around to face her Human child.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with ...Dad right now, but I just wanted to thank you for being cordial throughout it all. I know it must be hard for you given how you feel about everything that’s happened.”

“Frisk, you don’t have to call him– Da-that, I’m not… married… anymore…”

“Look, I don’t call him Dad because I see you two as a couple or anything like that. Asgore is my father, just like you’re my mother, adoptive or not. It doesn’t matter to me. I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable by saying it when near you.”

“Oh, Frisk I- what do I say to that?” She felt horribly guilty.

“Nothing, just accept that I care what happens to the both of you, and despite the past, I’ll always love you. I can’t tell you how happy it made me when you decided to let Dad work for the school, but I’m glad you’re giving him a second shot.”

“Child, I-”

“Mom, it’s ok. These things take time, trust me I know, and I’m sure you two can at least be friends in the end.”

“Y-Yes, friends, that would be nice,” She closed her eyes and tried to picture it, but instead remembered the days long ago before she got married. “…I suppose.” She & Asgore had once been the best of friends.

“Great, maybe then we can be one big happy family!”

‘Don’t worry, Dearest, someday will all be one big happy family…’ The sound of Asgore’s sweet tenor hit her in waves as the memory washed over her soul. Tears pricked at Toriel’s eyes & without thinking she took a step back, then another, and another until she turned around quickly, running out the corridor. She felt so ashamed for facing her child with fresh tears falling from her eyes.

It took her a long time to regain her composure.

Eventually, she gathered enough courage to return to the Throne Room door. She had wanted to warn Frisk that Asgore might not be in the best mood to discuss anything, let alone the politics between the Humans & Monsters, but then she’d literally turned tail and ran away like a coward. ‘What’s gotten into me?’ Toriel’s thoughts fell all over the place. Being back in the castle never helped, there were too many memories, both good & bad, that triggered panic to erupt from her throat.

A loud stomping noise coming her way shocked the goat-woman out of her reverie. Griping the golden flower, Toriel hid behind a large purple tapestry, one that had faded into a light violet over time. ‘I cannot believe how he could let the castle go like this.’ She thought, then felt a small morsel of guilt settle in her stomach as she realize why Asgore let the maintenance on the castle go.

When one has nothing to live for…

Out of the corner of her eye Toriel watched as Papyrus practically barrel-rolled into the hallway, her large eyes widened as he threw open the large throne room door with ease, sauntering his way inside. No announcements. No confirmed audiences. “I know that lack of Royal duty had been figuratively flushed down the toilet but really?” Toriel sighed to herself. No one was there to hear her joke. “…*sigh*…not really, so it seems.” At a snail’s pace, Toriel sneaked over to the Throne Room door, opening it a crack to peek in.

“HELLO THERE HUMAN! IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I ASSUME THAT YOU ARE HERE TO SPEAK WITH THE KING?”

“Yes, Pappy, what are you here for?”

“WHY, I HAVE COME TO INFORM OUR GREAT LEADER OF THE GOING-ONS ABOVEGROUND, AFTERALL, I AM BESTIES WITH THE KING OF ALL MONSTERS!”

“Ah-ha, I see."

“NYEH, YES! AND LOOK, HUMAN, YOU SEE THIS FLOWER POT? MY OWN BROTHER HELPED ME ACQUIRE THIS RARE BEAUTY! AH! SPEAKING OF MY BROTHER… HE SAYS:” Papyrus took a deep breath. “hi.”

Frisk’s laughter broke the silence that penetrated the gloomy Throne Room as they doubled over, not only from Papyrus’s impersonation of Sans, but the overall serious expression that followed it. A small smile drifted onto Toriel’s face as well, feeling a burst of warmth in her SOUL watching the two.

“NEY-HEH-HEH, SO FRISK… IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT? HAS SOMETHING HAPPENED RECENTLY BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU… HEH?”

“Uh, Pap?”

“PERHAPS YOU TWO HAVE BEEN OUT ON A DATE? NYEEEEEH?” Right as Papyrus made an oddly girlish squeal, Toriel restrained herself from stepping in on the two at the mention of Sans dating Frisk.

“W-What?” Frisk’s mouth fell open.

“YOU WERE BOTH WEARING CLOTHES! DEARIE ME, AND AFTER THE HEARTACHE I’VE PUT YOU THROUGH DURING OUR OWN ROMANTIC RENDEZVOUS!” Papyrus put his gloved hand to his skull in a dramatic pose. Toriel, stunned stepped away from the door, closing it as she leaned on the aging wood and listened on. “I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULDN’T WANT ANYTHING LESS THEN SECOND BEST -notthatSansisn’tasgreatasme- BUT HE’S SUCH A BONEDOGGLER, WHICH IS WHY YOUR PERFECT FOR HIM! OF COURSE-”

“What is going on in here?” Toriel’s frame shook at the sound of Asgore’s soft curious voice.

“D-Dad!”

“NEH, YOU’RE HIGHNESS!”

“Frisk? Papyrus? My, what do I owe the honor?”

“I, SIR, AM HERE TO GRACE YOU WITH THE TALES OF MY MANY ADVENTURES!”

“Ah, just the usual updates, Dad.”

“NEH-HEH-HEHA- WILL YOU ALSO BE INFORMING THE KING OF YOUR LATEST FLIRTATIOUS ENSNAREMENT, HUMAN?” Toriel’s grip on the flower became crushing.

"Papyrus!”

“Flirtation? Frisk, have you been dating another human?”

“Huh, I, no-”

“NYEH, WHY THE HUMAN HAS BEEN DATING NONE OTHER THAN MY BROTHER, KING ASGORE!”

“Frisk is dating a monster? Y-You’re dating a monster?”

“Dad, were not really dating, we just …hang out. A lot.”

“ALONE, HEH-HEH!”

“Papyrus!”

“May I have a word with you two in the other room?” Toriel’s SOUL shivered at the low tone Asgore had used.

“CERTAINLY, YOU’RE MAJESTY!”

“Uh …sure Dad.”

A bad feeling shot up Toriel’s spine. Her Ex was an easy-going good natured monster, like any other, but even he had his draw backs. The one that drew the line for Toriel was the killing of innocents. However, the one for Asgore was the romance between Humans & Monsters. He didn’t hate the concept; he just had a rough past & a poor experience.

When the room went quiet Toriel tiptoed inside the cool chamber, pausing a moment to look around, she let the memories wash over her tormented mind: lazy days sitting in the overly large ornate chairs with her children asleep in her lap, sitting rigidly as monsters came & went telling the Royal couple of the happenings in New Home, the crushing news that both her children had fallen.

So many memories.

The panic attack slowly eased out of her system the more she breathed. One large breath later had her mood back to normal, although she still felt peeved about finding out about Frisk & Sans’ apparent relationship. ‘Mark my words, that monster better have a skele-ton of answers for this.’ Toriel thought, her face heating up in anger. She trusted Sans with the care of Frisk, for their safety, not as their love interest. A part of Toriel saw Sans as one of her best friends, a true confidant, and had she not given her SOUL to another, perhaps they could’ve been more.

Sans made her happy.

Yet, a long time ago, she’d also been happy with Asgore.

In truth Toriel didn’t know why she was spying on Frisk at this moment. Maybe she wanted to hear more about her child’s supposed love life, or see how Asgore was going to handle finding out about it. Perhaps she simply wanted to be there when the metaphorical dog residue hit the Tsunderplane. Either way she made her way to the entrance of the Barrier Room, though now it was more like Asgore’s Tea Room. Frisk & Papyrus both sat on each side of Asgore; no tea had been offered.

Toriel knew he wasn’t in a good mood.

“Before you two tell me about your days, let me spin a small tale for you.” Asgore started, lacing his large fingers together in front of his mouth. “A long, long time ago a valiant King ruled the Monster Race with a kind, gentle hand. He made sure that no subject felt the pains of hungry or the lack of shelter, and most importantly, ensured that they were safe under his protection.” Asgore took a shallow breath; he had everyone, including Toriel, enraptured in his story. “This King eventually got married & sired two sons. These two boys grew up in a world where Monsters & Humans coexisted. Their father saw to it that they were raised in a time of peace & harmony. There were never many scuffles between the two races since he always chose the pacifist route in his dealings.” Asgore paused, preparing himself. “Then one day the Older Prince fell in love.”

“OH GOODIE! WHO DID HE FALL IN LOVE WITH?”

“…” Frisk remained silent.

“The Older Prince fell in love with a Human Woman.”

“YIPPIE!” Toriel couldn’t see Papyrus’ face but she was sure he had heart-shaped eye sockets as he giddily shook his hands at Frisk. “HUMAN, IT’S JUST LIKE YOU AND SANS!”

“Papyrus, shh…”

“Let us continue?” Asgore said, precisely as Papyrus simmered down & Frisk tensed up. “The Human Woman had two siblings, an Older Brother & her Twin Sister. The Older Brother was next in line to become Chief of their tribe, and as an act of peace, found that his sister’s lover would be perfect to enact a peace treaty. Unfortunately, the Twin Sister despised Monsters and fashioned a plan to destroy their love.”

“OH NO!” Papyrus stated, almost jumping out of his seat.

“…”

Toriel watched as once again as Frisk said nothing. Turning away from the room, she pressed her back against the wall next to the entrance, letting a single tear roll down her cheek as she listened on from her hiding spot.

“Yes, but meanwhile, the Younger Prince had been sent off to a different Monster tribe, one close to this very mountain, since the Older Prince would someday take the crown -not him- and it was there that the other Younger Prince met the most beautiful Monster in the world, the woman he would one day call his wife.”

Toriel knew this story and recalled her own memory; she couldn’t breathe.

“The Younger Prince had become so enchanted by this beauty that he thought no danger in the world could ever derail his happiness, but low and behold that on his wedding day, the Older Prince could not attend.”

“W-WHY, why not?” Papyrus’ voice faltered.

Frisk became eerily quiet.

“The Older Prince had Fell-Down.”

“Oh…” Papyrus’ voice became a whisper.

“As you know, it is only the King of Monsters who is allowed to perform the BOND, and so the King left the Older Prince, the future King, to handle the situation with the humans south of the mountain. The Older Prince was sad to miss the Younger Prince’s wedding, but had his own lovely bride to keep him company. Little did the Older Prince know that his fiancé’s Twin Sister had made a deal with a group of Monsters, who like their human counterparts, didn’t want the future King of the Monster Race to wed a Human.”

No one made a sound.

“So as it was, the Older Brother of the Human Woman had recently become Chief, giving the Twin Sister the perfect opportunity to put her plan into action. The Twin Sister had the Monsters pretend to attack her in front of the Chief, but when he went to defend her, the Chief accidentally killed the Monsters. The Older Prince & the Human Woman returned to the tribe to find the ground littered with the dust of the fallen, and at the sight the Older Prince vowed vengeance against the Chief.” Another pause. “Yet, when the Older Prince went to attack, as an act of MERCY to spare the Chief, her loved one, the Human Woman jumped ahead of him and took the full force of his assault.”

Toriel felt hot tears sliding down her face as she heard the beginning sobs coming from Papyrus and a small sniffle from Frisk.

“In his grief, the Chief watched his sibling’s death at the hands of the Older Prince and out of his misery declared war on the Monster Race. Still, the Older Prince’s love for the Human Woman filled him with sorrow as he realized what his actions had caused. So as a last ditch effort to stay with his love, the Older Prince took his beloved’s SOUL into his.” Toriel could hear the chatter of tea ware being moved around, but didn’t dare look into the room. “Ahem, while holding onto the corpse of his love the Older Prince became a GOD and took up arms against the Humans right then & there, nearly killing everyone in the Tribe. The Chief would eventually kill the Older Prince, or perhaps the Human Woman’s SOUL convinced her love that fighting wouldn’t bring her back, either way the War between Monsters & Humans began. Word of the tragedy would reach the Younger Prince & the King three days later. The Chief eventually fell from his mortal wounds and the Twin Sister lead the Human Race against the King of Monsters. The rest as you both know is in the libraries texts…”

With a hand to her mouth Toriel slowly and clumsily fled the Throne Room. Too many memories flooded her mind as she jerked the door open; the flower fell and ended up crushed under her feet trying to get away from the haunting images. Her SOUL felt heavy.

The golden flower lay abandoned in the hall.

Chapter Text

…

“I would offer you both some tea, but …uh, it seems my good china has cracked?”

Asgore started to clean up the broken pieces of his new plain white china pot, a Christmas present the year before from Toriel, and tried not think of it as an ill-omen. The only possible conclusion would be that the china had been defective. However, Frisk had been staring at the teapot like it was the center of the universe just before it split into two.

Could they have…?

‘No, Frisk probably isn’t magically inclined, and even if they were, I doubt they’d be able to perform such a feat of telepathy.’ Asgore dismissed his odd thoughts about the short Human. Using a napkin he cleaned up the rest of the mess and as he went to stand he noticed how quiet Papyrus had gotten. Usually, the taller of the two skeleton brothers was rather loud, never overly obnoxious, but you could clearly hear him across a room. Asgore took the broken china to a small bin he kept hidden for trash; he debated on whether or not to throw away the teapot.

‘Toriel did give it to me…’

He placed it to the side to fix later. As soon as Asgore took his seat did Papyrus pop up from his and Asgore gave his guest a level stare. The young skeleton fidgeted, nervous & quiet.

“um, As-Asgore, sir? nyeh… i am- i must take my leave. you see, i disregarded my p-priorities for the day, neh-heh, and completely forgot i have library books due and-” Papyrus rambled off, slowly getting quieter as he went, his eyes downcast & hands folded.

Shame crawled up the large goat-man’s back; by chance he’d made the wrong decision? He knowingly frightened the two with his little story, but several of his cherished friends & family members had fallen because of their love for Humans. A warning seemed like a bright idea in his moment of shock.

“Ah yes, if you need to go you may. My door is always open for you, Child.” Asgore swallowed the bitter taste of the cold tea in his mouth. “I also must apologize if I discomforted you with my undertale.”

“Undertale?”

Asgore turned to look at Frisk. “Ha, it’s a bit of an inside joke between myself & To-” He grit his teeth. “…I used to tell specific stories about the Underground to the children, and that whenever I tell a story, it is usually got called an undertale.”

“So does that mean when you move Aboveground your stories will be called abovetales?” Frisk asked their eyes closed into slits.

“Perhaps.” Asgore’s lips pressed together in displeasure; he hated the subject of moving.

“AHEM, NEH.”

Asgore turned back to Papyrus, noticing how he stood, literally straightening his backbone. Frisk stared directly at him and the young Monster’s confidence could be seen visibly growing in his posture. Puffing his chest out Papyrus turned to him.

“KING ASGORE, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE ONE THING TO SAY BEFORE I LEAVE.” He paused looking directly at Asgore. “IF THERE IS ONE HUMAN ON THIS PLANET WHO CAN love A MONSTER, AND MAKE IT WORK, IT WOULD BE FRISK.”

The King of Monsters watched silently as Papyrus slid out from behind his chair, bowed to a red-faced Frisk, and jogged towards the entrance to the opening of the Underground. Papyrus’ signature laugh echoed into the room as Asgore fidgeted with a small napkin on the table. Feeling ill at ease, he gave a small cough and decided to change topics with Frisk.

“So…” ‘Way to go you idiot now everything will be awkward.’ Asgore sighed.

“The law I proposed finally took effect.” Frisk said in a low voice.

“Politics it is then.” Not his favorite topic, but hopefully better than the hole he’d dug himself into. “I suppose that is good? Which law?”

“Well, it’s not really a single law. It’s a part of the Monster Federal Civil Rights Act; basically courts will now accept cases involving domestic & heinous crimes against Monsters.”

“I certainly hope our relationship with the Humans won’t snowball to the point that we need to provoke such a law.” Asgore’s eye brows knit together. “Everything seems to be going fine so far.”

“Hm, it is a precaution, there are some people who don’t see Monsters as… equals.”

‘As Humans, you mean. Some Humans see us beneath them.’ Asgore thought. “I see, but for only being Ambassador for three years you’ve accomplished quite a lot.”

“I suppose, but a few complications came up during my last meeting with the Mayor of Ebott City.”

“W-What sort of complications?”

“A few "conservitive" groups have been opposing a few of the laws within the MFCRA. They reason that, because a fair amount of Monsters look like …animals, Monsters should wear a badge, tag, or wrist identification to prevent any “mix-ups” from happening.”

Asgore’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Personally, I find it degrading, and rude, and insulting.” Frisk took a deep frustrating breath. “I’m fighting it, and I have quite a few other Humans backing me so they can’t put it into place, so please don’t worry. I’ve suggested other ways of dealing with the …ignorance. Monster & Human safety classes have already been made mandatory in all the schools on Ebott Island, and will soon be taught in others! The posters & websites Alphys made, along with the free Safety Training Classes Papyrus oversees at the Colleges have also been super effective! Not to mentions Mettaton’s support with his TV specials and Toriel’s class on how to confront Humans…”

“Frisk, child…” Asgore put his large paw on their arm. “Dear one, you-” ‘You really care.’ “…shouldn’t worry, I’m sure that both the Humans & Monsters will one day look back on this and realize the good that you’re doing for us all.”

Asgore smiled down at the young Human. Looking closely he could see the small worry lines marring the sides of their face, the frown marks, and the dark bags under their over bright green eyes. Perhaps Frisk hadn’t been too preoccupied with their job to take into consideration their own well-being?

“I know Dad, I just can’t stop moving forward or everything will …reset.”

“Hmm…” Asgore felt uncomfortable all of a sudden, as if a thought in the back of his mind was begging him to stop, but he couldn’t recall WHAT needed to be stopped.

“Things are slowly changing, everything from Monster magic being use in hospitals to simple signs posted on bathroom stalls…” Frisk shut their eyes completely. “Anyway, as for what Papyrus had been teasing me about earlier…”

Asgore got up from his chair suddenly. “TEA! My, my, where are my manners, you’ve been here talking with nothing to soothe your throat! If you’ll excuse me!” He marched his way out the door into the Throne Room.

…

“Dad, wait-” Frisk tried to stop him but they were sure he’d just keep going till he reached his small home, a good ten minute walk away. They sighed, feeling a tad bit sarcastic at his comical exit. “I haven’t told you, how because the law passed, a mob broke out in the city. How tensions are high, resistance groups popped up, and Monsters retaliating is WHY Mom’s classes and your presence to enforce it is necessary…”

They sighed again.

A good portion of the Monsters didn’t trust Frisk and a smaller portion refused to listen to them. Asgore was the only Monster able to truly have the Monster’s act on the rules Frisk came up with. After all, they didn’t always RESET because of Human intervention or their own clumsy bad luck. Many Monsters spooked easily, which triggered battles, which ended with Humans dead if they didn’t understand how to handle the situation properly.

Most of the time one or the other died and many of the skittish Monsters still lived in the underground or stayed contained within the town Aboveground. If they did get into an altercation they were taught to flee, dodge, defend, or to try not to attack. They thanked the higher powers for Papyrus & Toriel’s willingness to teach both Monsters & Humans how to handle a situation with MERCY instead of hostility. Frisk relaxed into the back of their chair, as they stared up at the vaulted ceiling they recalled all that had happened since their last RESET.

“I have to remember to call the police abOHHAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Frisk’s hands shot to their head digging into their scalp as a white pain blinded them. Distantly they could hear a loud sorrowful roar pierce though the dysphoria. Standing up Frisk tossed their head back and screamed along with Asgore. A pressure swept over them, pressing in at all sides, and began to suffocate them. The visor of white began to offset as the darkness of the VOID entered the corners of the room.

The world was trying to RESET.

Another loud boom, a door being ripped open, then another, and a large dark blob of purple & gold rushed past them. A bulky object was thrown towards the old barrier sounding of broken wood and metal scraping across the padded flower floor. Asgore roared once more, ear-shattering, followed by a mournful howl of misery. The sounds were all too much for them - the crushing pressure, lack of breath, and bleeding colors.

Frisk closed their eyes.

Frisk PAUSED.

The sounds, pressures, and colors dimmed as hot tears streamed down their face. The pain started to recede, gasping for breath as Frisk laid their palms on the table for support. Their SOUL shook, giving them the feeling of being doubly inverted, outside of their own body, but one look at the scene before sent them a wave of steady determination. Asgore appeared to have finally snapped and held onto a small broken golden flower grasped tightly in his fist.

Wiping the tears from their face they took a couple small breaths. Frisk turned to look at the sizable ornate chair that had been thrown into the center of the golden flowers. Asgore’s beloved flowers. The King’s Throne had broken into several pieces at the entrance to the exit of the Underground. Frisk rubbed their temple, ear’s still stinging, and stood.

“Frisk?”

Their eyes shot opened as they eyed the shifting mass of data that called itself Gaster. The pressure intensified as their control slipped, they couldn’t hold a PAUSE for very long without their SOUL belonging to …them. Taking a huge gulp of air they nodded their head at the slightly transparent Monster.

“iS iT tImE?”

They shook their head no, watching his blurry form shift towards them. He stopped suddenly, stilling as if frozen in place along with the rest of the world, then immediately jumped away from Frisk. Another large black blob oozed into existence where he’d hovered. Frisk turned to look at him, making eye contact with eye sockets and mouthed a word: SOON. Gaster disappeared just before Frisk closed their eyes and braced themselves for the pain.

They ended the PAUSE just as the ooze took form.

…

“DAMN IT!!!” Chara screamed at the spot where Gaster had vanished.

Their eyes dripped black globs of liquid hate onto their chest as they whipped their head to look around the room. With the Monster nowhere in sight they turned their attention back onto Frisk. The Human had ran to their Father, throwing their hands out in a weak effort to calm the ragging King. Asgore wasn’t out of it enough to harm Frisk, however, as his large paw stopped its decent just before making contact with the Human’s face.

Chara watched Asgore’s body shake, falling to his knees in alarm as he realized his actions. Gripped in his other hand were the remnants of the broken golden flower. Frisk took his moment of shock to hug him, their small thin arms wrapping around his large head in comfort. Chara stood just a few feet away from the scene; turning their head they scoffed in disgust.

“Pathetic.” Floating over and above Frisk’s head they forced their will upon the Human. “Just give up on him you stupid idiot he doesn’t want this, you’re the one ruining everything!” Chara screamed.

But no one heard.

They always knew that Frisk couldn’t hear them when outside of the VOID, so they relied heavily on feeling, on sending their thoughts & ideas though the SOUL they both shared. Frisk’s SOUL had once been their own, but Frisk happened to be the reincarnation of Chara, so technically Chara was just taking back what had been originally theirs. ‘Like a bad game of hot potato between two people...’ Chara thought as they watched Asgore finally calm down and return Frisk’s hug.

“I’m s-so sorry, Frisk!” Asgore said while massive tear droplets splattered on his armor & Frisk’s forehead.

“Dad it’s ok.”

“Yeah, Father it’s okay.” Chara mocked, sending a wave of annoyance into Frisk.

“I-I don’t know w-what came over me…” His body stopped shaking as his arms lowered to his sides.

“Maybe if you retrace your steps?”

“Great idea Frisk, make him remember what turned him into a wild animal.”

“I’d just- when I walked out the door from the Throne Room…” Chara watched as their Father’s eyes glazed over, they could feel his magic began to form even from their existence outside of time.

“Calm down Dad. What was it that made you…”

“Why don’t you just say it: force the magic you’ve been gathering by standing directly next to the barrier, like an idiot for-freaking-ever, into the world making it RESET because you’re too much of a BIG BABY to deal with life & its problems!!! Hmph! But perhaps that’s a bit too long winded, maybe saying “freak out” would be better?” Chara laughed wickedly.

“The flower…” Chara’s eyes glazed over at the sight of the crushed petals of the golden flower. It reminded of all the timelines where they defeated the Comedian, and then killed the Whiny-Baby.

“Dad, did …you crush it?”

“N-Not really.” Asgore sat back on his haunches & Chara floated by his left side. His arm lifted the broken flower. Asgore's arm passed through Chara's chest as he put the flower down next to the broken tea pot.

“If that’s not symbolism I don’t know what is. Gezz, Father, you really know how to procure bad luck, huh?” Chara pitied him. “Shame really, I guess all our destinies are tied to yours…”

“What happened?”

“Aw, this will be good.”

“It- I- ugh…” Asgore bowed his head, fresh tears sliding easily down the wet fur on his face. “This morning I had a small talk with Tor-you’re Mother. I gave her a flower to show her I held no hard feeling over …what happened.”

“So, you found the flower?”

“Duh.”

“Crushed outside the Throne Room, yes.”

“Are you sure it was the one you gave Mom?”

“Yeah, dig that knife further Frisk. Who else would tear up a flower outside the King of Monster’s door?”

“I-I think so…”

“Dad, it will be fine, don’t worry.” Frisk hugged Asgore once more as the King bellowed and cried on their small shoulder.

“Ugh, I can’t take anymore of this; you don’t even know the half of it.” Chara floated over to the table and took a seat. They tried to pick up one of the cups but their hand passed through it. “I bet you all want to hear a REAL sad story? Hmm... how did that one line in that Bat-movie you went to see go? Oh yeah: “Is it the scars? Do you wanna know how I got ‘em?” They snickered. “Like my rosy cheeks? Nice, right? My Great Grandmother gave them to me. Turns out a long, long, LONG time ago there was this tribe of STUPID Humans who liked to brand their warriors.”

They turned to watch as Frisk helped Asgore up, walking him over into the chair at the head of the table. Frisk took their seat across from Chara. The two sat quietly; they decide to continue.

“You know, Great Grandmother had it in for all the children of her line. She would rave about how she killed the King of Monsters, how she and six other humans ran them into Mt. Ebott, and locked them away to rot. How it was our bloodline’s duty to be prepared if they ever returned…” Chara closed their eyes recalling the memory. “Well, Mom didn’t do anything to stop her, but my Aunt did. I thought everything would have been fine after she intervened but then… my Aunt and Mother died. From then on me and my cousin ended up in our Great Grandmother’s custody. What a trip that was…”

“Dad, want me to go get the spare tea pot?”

“Yes, please Frisk.”

Chara watched Frisk get up and leave.

Asgore sighed.

“After I couldn’t take anymore of her torture I ran to Mt. Ebott figuring REAL Monsters would be better. Then I fell. I ended up meeting Asriel, Toriel, and …you.” Chara opened their eyes wide, dark pools of black hate pouring out of their eye sockets. “Ironic, isn’t it. Me and Frisk? Were the descendants of the woman who’s killed half your race, your father, your brother, your son, and soon… everything.”

Chara laughed hysterically and began to fade into the VOID.

Chapter Text

…

Asgore fell to his knees, the small crushed golden flower swallowed up in his large paw, his small human child tying to wrap him up in a hug. The emotions dripping in waves off of the disgruntled king were pushed aside by the shock at what he’d almost done. The act sobered his mentality, his body shaking with the tremors of his sorrow & HATE.

Frisk stood stock still as the large paw of their father nearly crushed them. They clung to the Monster King in hopes to help him move on from the overwhelming feeling to return, to RESET. I was then that Chara made their presence known and a feeling of disgust washed over them.

Chara’s emotions.

Annoyance mixed into their soul and Frisk could almost hear the other “child” berating their existence, cursing them for taking back their SOUL. When Asgore finally pulled away from his child’s embrace Frisk could feel aggravation explode, and yet underneath all the feeling of frustration a sense of longing filtered through.

“I’m s-so sorry, Frisk!”

“Dad it’s ok.” The wet tears from Asgore didn’t help as Frisk suddenly felt dizzy from the direct wave of irritation coming off of Chara.

“I-I don’t know w-what came over me…”

“Maybe if you retrace your steps?” Frisk sighed. The taste of displeasure was almost palatable.

“I’d just- when I walked out the door from the Throne Room…”

The magic overflowing from the king was enough to cause Frisk to almost PAUSE once more. It made them sick to their stomach. Frisk tried to control their breathing, the sensations from Chara’s consciousness combined with their Dad’s making them lightheaded.  The King’s emotional turmoil felt ten times worse than Chara’s since his bled into his magic & began flooding the room with agony, fear, sorrow, and something much, much darker…

HATE.

“Calm down Dad. What was it that made you…” Frisk couldn’t believe how calm they sounded and wondered if they were once more outside their body. Yet a wave of anger from Chara quickly dismissed the idea.

“The flower…”

“Dad, did …you crush it?” There was so much anger & sadness coming from Asgore & Chara that Frisk though they might drown in it.

“…” So preoccupied with what’d been going on in their head they didn’t even hear Asgore’s response.

“What happened?” Frisk got a small break, as strange sensation of endearment coming from their shared SOUL followed by pity.

“It- I- ugh…” Asgore bowed his head, fresh tears sliding easily down the wet fur on his face. “This morning I had a small talk with Tor-you’re Mother. I gave her a flower to show her I held no hard feeling over …what happened.”

“So, you found the flower?”

“Crushed outside the Throne Room, yes.”

“Are you sure it was the one you gave Mom?” A sharp pang of annoyance slithered up their back.

“I-I think so…”

“Dad, it will be fine, don’t worry.” Frisk could only stand there as they hugged the Monster King and let him cry. Asgore’s hold on the emotional battle in the room lessened as Chara’s built up. The lost SOUL must have had something to say for being ignored.

Waves of frustration, bitter tasting feelings & grief washed over Frisk as they stood stock still, the emotional typhoon literally pinning them in place. Anger rose up like a tsunami, crashing into their consciousness; it was enough to break the hold on their body. Shaking, Frisk helped Asgore regain his footing and helped the older monster over to his dining table.

Frisk sat down, the woozy feeling growing as Chara lead a tirade over their mentality. The tea they’d drank earlier left a sour taste which matched the pungent thoughts being sent their way. Resentful disgust filled their senses followed by an eerie inkling of loss overshadowed with fear. Frisk had to do something to shake off the dread.

“Dad, want me to go get the spare tea pot?”

“Yes, please Frisk.” Asgore said, sighing sadly.

Standing up might have been a bad idea, but they couldn’t just sit there and take the barrage that Chara threw at them. Frisk made it halfway to the cabinet before, like a spring, hopelessness bloomed from their chest, and they faltered grasping the furniture in front of them for support. In a moment it disappeared and then Frisk gasped, near breathless, as the sensation of love in every form coursed through their body.

They almost doubled over when the love was ripped from them and replaced with HATE. It was this emotion out of all of them that alerted Frisk. Turning around, though they couldn’t see the spirit, they could clearly tell where the core of feelings emanated from. Frisk could almost see Chara sitting in the chair next to the King and it was at this moment that they realized the emotion they felt had never been meant for them.

It was for Asgore.

…

The timeline forced him to sprout up out of the ground. He would have to talk to the Garbage Brother all over again. ‘What a joy.’ Though Flowey. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have a repeat encounter.

“heya.”

“Howdy.” Something was off. “My names Fl-”

“so how much of our little song & dance do you remember?”

“Enough.” Flowey glared up at the taller Monster, it wasn’t fun when you were the one getting cut off.

“tell me, did you like your bad time?”

That pissed him off. “You.” He got bigger. “Killed.” And bigger. “Frisk.” Until he lumbered, huge and intimidating, over the small skeleton.

“wasn’t aiming for Frisk.” Sans said with malice; not backing down.

“Hmph, I told you they’d RESET if you tried to kill me.” Flowey slowly shrunk back to his usual height.

“yeah, my bad.”

“Wow, you just don’t get it do you?”

“get what? how you’re the cause of most of my problems?”

“Ha-ha, no. You have NO idea what it’s really like to die.”

“hate to break it to you buddy, but i know exactly what it feels like to die.”

“Oh no, no, no, no you don’t. At best you have the ghost emotions left over. No, I’m talking about the full effect: of feeling the “how” and remembering it completely.”

“what’s your point?”

“Just a thought, don’t you ever feel bad knowing that your friends killed Frisk over & over again just because Monsters are too dumb NOT to attack?”

“what are you talking about Frisk didn’t… die at all…”

“Ah, and there’s the fugitive light bulb.” Flowey chuckled. “Do you really think that Frisk, or any Human for that matter, could make it ALL the way through the underground without the ability to RESET or …a little help.”

“a little help? you helped the other humans?”

“Yes and no.”

“how- I know Frisk made it through unharmed. they always do.”

“Poor Sansy, you sad little skeleton. You remember only what happened in this timeline. Haven’t you ever given a thought to the others? Do you really, truly believe that Frisk has traipsed thought the ENTIRE Underground and met with NO harm? That they only RESET at the “end” of their journey?”

“…”

“You think that their just NOW dying? Ha-ha, they’ve died millions of times before repetition set in, HA! I bet they could play though the Underground with their eyes closed from all the pervious RESETS!”

“Frisk… couldn’t… they only started dying once we got to the surface.”

“That’s because NEW scenarios are happening to Frisk.  Their using everything they have to keep the world from resetting, to keep the timeline going. You honestly think that Frisk wants to RESET? I mean, yeah, maybe the first couple of times but nearly 3000? I think not.”

“3000, are you jo-joking.”

“I’m not you, Smiley.”

“bite me.”

“Trash!”

“weed!”

“Holy Temmies, ugh, we’re getting NO WHERE with this!!!” Flowey said in exasperation. “Whatever, back to my original plan – my blackmail still stands, got it? STAY AWAY from Frisk.”

“kiss my boney ass.”

“Ha! Or what? What can you do to me? You’ve seen what happens when you try to kill me.”

“i’ll make sure you never interfere with Frisk again.”

“And how will you do that? Hmm? Frisk needs me; I’m going to help them RESTORE the world. You? You’re just a lazy un-funny LIAR.”

“i don’t lie …all the time.”

“Please, you lie –literally– through your teeth!” Flowey laughed manically. “You know, maybe you should think about having a dentist look at that overbite!”

“shut up.”

“Awe, don’t find me funny?”

“no, as a matter of fact i don’t, and as for Frisk… if i want to …date them, then it’d be business between me & Frisk. no third parties involved, bean-sprout.”

“Like a real skeleton you just crawled into your grave…ha-ha, guess I will have to put my blackmail to use. Here comes Toriel, Garbage-man, you might want to straighten that fake smile you always put on.” Flowey gave him a small evil chuckle then disappeared into the ground.

“what?”

“Sans.” Toriel stepped into the room.

“t-toriel! how good to see you.”

“I’m not sure I can say the same…”

Sans stood still, tilting his head to the side and wondered how much the Queen remembered from the last RESET. He watched as she ventured further into the room covered in golden flowers, she was worrying her dress in an effort to keep her hands busy. She looked every bit her age and he felt a swell of pity for his long time friend.

“sorry...” The apology came out of nowhere, but deep down inside him, something in the back of his scull demanded the word be said. Flowey’s words about how he didn’t remember everything crept up his spine.

Toriel lost the battle with her composure. The ex-queen fell to her knees in front of the shorter monster. Bowing her head she put a paw on each of his bony shoulders and looked him directly in his eye sockets.

“I still love him.”

“that’s, uh, understandable.” It didn't take much to guess who she was talking about.

“But he killed so many of my…” Tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes.

“he did what he had to.” Sans had his own thoughts & theories on the subject but now was not the time or place to discuss them.

“I know!” Her paws gripped him, but not enough to harm his one point defense. A moment passed as she silently wept. Her paws had slid down his arms and she could tell it was making him uncomfortable. She sniffled, realizing another thought that had been bothering her mind. “How long have you been in love with Frisk?”

“…?” Sans sputtered, for once in his long life truly thrown off. Toriel hadn’t even has him “if” he liked Frisk, just assumed that he already did. Though it might have helped her judgment holding onto him the ways she was.

“I do have eyes & ears my friend.” Though it pained her to admit it. “But I warn you, Frisk is my child, and you will do well to do right by them.” Toriel pulled back from Sans enough to see his one eye had flared up, bringing with the wave of uneasy feelings from earlier, but he blinked the magic in his eye away taking the anxiety with it.

“you don’t have to worry about that, scary-goat-momma.” This got a chuckled out of her. “Frisk is… heh, more of a con-da-mitment than ketchup is.”

Toriel burst into laughter at the stupid pun and breathing through her nose tried her best to compose herself once again. “So then *snort* you do ~heh-ha~ love Frisk?” She giggled as the poor skeleton went blue in the face.

“y-yes.” At his admission a small curse could be heard followed by pot near him tipped over and his grin never felt more genuine. ‘suck it flower-face.’ He thought with a devious snicker knowing that the pathetic plant couldn’t use his so-called blackmail. Not when he had the approving mother right in front of him.

“Oh Sans, I-I guess that’s what I …needed to hear.” She sighed. “Ah, but what do I do about Asgore…?

“heh, well i’m not one for giving advice, but… time & conversation royally help.”

Toriel stood up and closed her eyes. She let the warm sun from the high windows warm her fur and let the large blooms of flowers that Asgore had tended to overwhelm her senses. It was like being wrapped up in his arms. When she opened her eyes Sans was gone.

“Don’t worry, Dearest, someday will all be one big happy family…” Toriel turned around and walked back towards the throne room.

…

Papyrus had run from the King’s castle to his & Sans’ house in New-New Home noting that the lights & magical snow added to the charm of their small abode. Instantly, he was hit with a wave of nostalgia. His date with Frisk surfacing to the forefront of his mind and him telling the small human how he would help them find someone second best! He laughed at his secret joke, everyone but the human knew that the only monster second best to the Great Papyrus was his own brother! He didn’t like tricking Frisk, but the thought of the human with Sans made his want to jump around in joy.

Which he did… too enthusiastically.

“Oh, Papyrus Darling!!!” Mettaton’s electronic enhanced voice sing-songed as the robotic monster waved from a very long limo. “What are you doing flinging yourself out of a window, heh~hee, not that I mind the …view.”

“M-METTATON!!! AT MY HOUSE!! *fan-boy-scream* OH MY!!” The young skeleton beamed. “A-ARE YOU HEAR FOR MY AUTOGRAPH?” Papyrus could only assume that the most famous Monster in history finally acknowledged his equal famousness, the thoughts from the exchange he’d had with the King & Frisk in the throne room long put out of his mind.

“Not really, Darling.”  If Papyrus even heard the comment it didn’t hamper down his excitement. “I just was in the area and wondered if you’d like to come with me to the opening of the ~NEW~ Monster Museum?”

“WOULD I EVER!!!” The excited skeleton brother ran at the limo, flipped over the vehicle to the other side, and jumped in to land right next to the now very flustered Mettaton. Straightening himself, Papyrus leaned over and grasped the robots humanoid hands in his gloved ones. “THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!”

Mettaton’s face was practically glowing, wondering if Alphys had intentions on making the robot’s head have a lighting function. “Y-Yes, well Darling that makes the two of us.” Mettaton eased back into the seat, hands still joined and addressed the driver. “Ok, my good monster let us be off to the celebration!”

The limo started towards its destination and unknowingly set up the beginning of the END.