A/N: Yes I'm back, no I don't have any crazy excuses. I'm currently putting Ytube videos of this story out over on my channel called AlteriaTempest if anyone is interested in rereading this story as an audiobook with some gathered images and audiovisual effects. It's up to chapter 13 atm and mostly a way for me to get back into the groove for this story. Now to the actual chapter...
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Frisk woke up slowly and in pain.
Which in and of itself was slightly reassuring because that meant the timeline hadn't been reset and all his work would actually mean something. Though the thought that it technically brought him closer to completing Flowey's plan did put a slight damper on things.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake." Frisk slowly pushed himself up from where he had been lying down on the skeleton's couch, only to see Sans standing in front of the table and feeding his pet rock. "The way you handled that would have almost been impressive, if you hadn't passed out at the end there."
Frisk rolled his eyes and checked over his condition before answering. His stomach and back were probably still bruised from the hits he had taken, and his hands were still cut up from that last clash. It seemed like his Aura level was still a bit low, and his magic was still basically bottomed out. All of which meant he hadn't been out for too long.
"I'd like to see-" The human was halfway through asking if Sans could do better before he realized who he was talking to. "Whatever, I did the best I could with the resources at my disposal." Frisk decided to say instead. "Where is everyone?" He needed to get a read on the situation to know if it was possible just to pass out again, because that's what he wanted to do right now.
"Undyne was so fired up after your little display there that she took Papyrus to go 'train' some more at her place. No matter how much she wanted to stay, Snowdin's climate doesn't exactly agree with her, but the two of them stayed long enough to cook you some spaghetti." Sans gestured towards the kitchen.
No, the two of them together? Papyrus was bad enough on his own, but from his insider info, Undyne wasn't much better. Frisk couldn't even begin to comprehend what atrocities they could create together. But, they did make it for him…
"Unfortunately, I had to subdue their creation before it could consume the fridge." Frisk breathed a sigh of relief as a takeout box flew onto the couch beside him. "So I hopped over to Grillby's and got you something to eat."
That… that was actually really nice of Sans. It should definitely help restore his depleted magic.
"Even if you did root for Undyne, I'll forgive you." Frisk teased before opening the box and grabbing the magic burger. "But seriously, thanks."
"It's no problem kid," Sans shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. "You're the one working yourself to the bone right now, it was the least I could do."
It was silent for a few moments as Frisk concentrated on eating his meal. Slowly, he could feel the magic seeping into his depleted reserves. When he looked back at the skeleton, it almost looked like the pet rock was jumping up to eat the food out of Sans's hands. Though it stopped immediately, and the human swore either the universe was messing with him, or Sans was.
Just as Frisk was about to ask whether the rock was actually sentient, Sans started talking. "Speaking of work, I think you'll be happy to hear that I spoke with Alphys about our little conspiracy." The human coughed, almost choking on his food. "I was able to get her on board, so you shouldn't be facing much resistance once you get to the lab."
"R-Really?" Frisk asked with hope in his voice. "That's great! Did she have any ideas on how to beat Flowey?"
The skeleton walked up to lean against the couch. "I figured we could all have a little strategy meeting once you get there, so I didn't ask." He turned his suddenly curious eyes at Frisk. "You seem to know so much already that I figure waiting for you would be our best bet."
Ah, yeah, Frisk figured he wouldn't be able to keep that stuff a secret for long. "Yeah." Sans knew he hadn't made it past Waterfall during the resets, meaning the human shouldn't have any knowledge of Asgore, much less the fact that the king could have just started absorbing human souls. "I'll tell you everything."
Frisk looked down at his frayed sweater and wondered how the two monsters would take it. He knew his situation was a bit irregular, but he could admit that if telling them the information changed things between them, the human would be crushed.
"Look kid, I understand keeping secrets." Sans sighed and stopped staring. "But we need to know what's going on if we have any chance of stopping this."
Frisk gathered his courage. "No, I totally get it, I'll tell you. Once I get to the lab, I'll tell you everything." He needed to get Sans completely on his side; he also wouldn't be able to properly use his knowledge if his allies couldn't trust the source.
Sans smiled and started in the direction of the kitchen, probably to teleport out again. "Good idea, you take your time recovering… Though Undyne might beat you up more if you take too long." Frisk shook his head at the thought. "But, seriously, kid, thanks for giving us monsters a chance." He finished before disappearing.
And now Frisk was alone.
Leaning back against the couch, he let out a sigh of relief. The looming threat Undyne represented had been foiled for now, and with that, it felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest. While he hadn't exactly won the fight outright, gaining the warrior's respect and promising to help should have secured his safety in the underground or at least Waterfall.
But now wasn't the time to get complacent; Frisk still needed to be ready for anything. While things had been looking up recently, they still didn't have a plan to deal with Flowey. Honestly, DETERMINATION was such a broken power that once again, the fallen human thought about how much better this would have been if he had the same soul trait as the original Frisk.
After uselessly fantasizing about being able to control the timeline, Frisk eventually decided that he might as well be doing something useful while sitting here. And because he was still recovering magic that basically just meant mental training, or more accurately, just thinking about the fight with Undyne.
Technically, it had been a tie, with no winner declared. But Frisk was self-aware enough to know that he lost, or at least would have without extenuating factors.
In the heat of battle, Frisk had made plenty of mistakes. He had been so focused on talking Undyne down that he forgot to retreat deeper into the forest and use the trees to stall her lightning-fast movements. Though that would have also limited his newly created gravity step technique, so it wasn't a horrible mistake.
Which reminded Frisk that he had another prototype technique to train and improve. So much to do and so little time to do it. The bastard flower wouldn't be happy if Frisk just slacked off and took days to experiment with magic like he wanted to, but he was honestly tempted to do just that.
—
Unfortunately, the logical side of Frisk's brain wouldn't just allow him to anger the flower for no reason, so he spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready to leave. His injuries had been mostly taken care of by his replenished Aura, and his hands were bandaged up with a few medical supplies Toriel had slipped into his bag.
He wasn't in top form, but was still confident he could take on any of the regularly occurring threats in the area.
"Alright, time to go," Frisk whispered out as he took one last look at the Skeleton Brother's house before shaking his head. "Ever onward, I guess." The idea of leaving here filled him with both excitement and trepidation.
Progress was being made, however, that progress also meant one more step toward completing Flowey's plan.
With that distressing thought in mind, Frisk started his journey towards Waterfall, or more specifically, Undyne's house. While they had left off on good terms, it wouldn't do to leave the leader of the Royal Guards waiting for too long.
Fortunately, walking through Waterfall wasn't that much more difficult during the day than it was at night. Sure, there were a few more encounters with roaming monsters, including buff merhorses that were easily pacified in a flexing competition, and some sort of octopus creature that liked to ramble about being lonely. But it almost seemed like most of the monsters that encountered the traveling human almost… respected him?
At least quite a few ran away muttering something about a hero, which probably meant Undyne had stuck to her end of the bargain to grant him safe passage, even if it wasn't mandatory after the outcome of their duel.
Frisk was incredibly grateful if she had, it felt like the last couple of days were filled with nothing but fighting and training. So getting to stroll through Waterfall like this was a balm for his weary soul. The place wasn't as awe-inspiring as Snowdin's little enclosed world; however, its natural bioluminescent beauty far outstripped that of its neighbors.
All in all, there were fewer overtly hostile encounters, which allowed for a more leisurely journey where Frisk could actually take his time exploring the area. Taking full advantage of this, he did some things that were too difficult or unavailable during his nighttime escape, including picking up a cone of Nice Cream (which he enjoyed), getting behind the waterfall to pick up the old tutu (which he put on immediately, knowing it would boost his defense more than the bandana), and reading through the ancient glyphs that were spread throughout the underground cavern.
"It would take the SOUL of nearly every monster, just to equal the power of a single human SOUL…" Frisk muttered as he ran his hand across the glowing carving before moving on to the next.
While intellectually he knew the information was correct, it was difficult to reconcile with what he'd seen the Monsters of the Underground do so far. Was a human SOUL really that much more powerful than theirs? It was really impossible to say without knowing how strong the humans in this reality were, and how SOUL strength correlated with outward projection of power.
Was he an exemplar of the average human from this world? How much of his powers were derived from mechanics inherent to this reality, only superficially resembling those of other fictions from his old world?
All of which were wonderful questions that could wait until after Frisk defeated Flowey. Though maybe he would toss a few to Alphys just to sate his curiosity?
A few minutes later, after Frisk had just passed a half-remembered room with a block of cheese that was encased in crystal, the human came upon something strange. Set into the rocky walls of this cavern, and illuminated by glowing crystals littered across the dark blue stone, sat a d̷o̶o̴r̷ that he didn't remember passing during his earlier trips.
The entire d̷o̶o̴r̷ was a dull grey, not a color in any sense of the word, just the lack of substance screaming into the world that something was missing. Almost akin to a scar upon the surface of the wall.
He should open it…
Something in the back of Frisk's mind tingled at that thought, but it was dismissed soon after under the crushing tide of curiosity that he was now feeling. There was POSSIBILITY behind that ḏ̵̒o̴̥̓o̶̜̿r̷̰̊. NOTHING and EVERYTHING all at once.
He needed to know what was inside…
Footsteps echoed loudly in his ears, and the human looked down curiously, only to realize they were his own. Step by step, Frisk moved closer to the ḏ̵̒o̴̥̓o̶̜̿r̷̰̊. A shiver crept down his spine at the thought of what lay inside.
Could it be the key to defeating Flowey? The true essence of SOUL Magic? A way to destroy the Barrier?
He needed it…
A slightly trembling hand grasped the d̶̢̏o̴̟̓ó̷̹r̴̗͝k̴̨͌n̶̙͑o̵͖̔b̶͊͜. The cold grey metal felt like it could disappear at any moment within his grasp, but it turned nonetheless. Frisk watched as the human opened the d̶͇̖͆͌o̷̢̨̡̥͛̆̀͂o̶̻̤̊̂̀r̷̻̉̒̓̕ before stepping inside.
The void surrounded them– there were no surroundings– and the human felt trepidation as they walked across nothing to get to something.
Step…Step…Step… Slowly, they approached the POSSIBILITY. The fact that the f̵̨̓l̷͑ͅơ̴̭ò̶̲r̶̢̍ was made of the same nothing as the d̶͇̖͆͌o̷̢̨̡̥͛̆̀͂o̶̻̤̊̂̀r̷̻̉̒̓̕ registered somewhere in the back of their mind. Only to be immediately forgotten as they saw–
They Saw.
They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw. They Saw.
They saw a face– a presence– a figure– that wasn't there.
They Reached Out.
Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out. Reached Out.
And the figure reached back.
Even though the hand wasn't there, it felt hard, smooth– no, there were cracks. Pieces missing. A hole.
And then it disappeared.
Gone in an instant, alongside everything and nothing else.
…
Frisk passed out.