(See the end of the chapter for notes .)

The first piece of the past is also revealed, into helping understand how this universe and/or timeline came to be how it is

Frisk learns about his new power, and attempts to leave the Ruins once again.

Chapter Text

You are the future of humans and Monsters!

Chara! Stay Determined!

The world turned to a mess of colors, as if Frisk was standing in a thick mist. Then, the individual colors came together, coalescing into their respective solid colors, and the world becoming sharper, and into focus.

The final sensation Frisk felt was the feeling of as if he was falling, landing in the leaves a few feet away from the glowing yellow star, ankles slightly shaking from the “impact”.

“Oh, when I get my hands on that little weed’s-” Chara begins saying.

“Chara?” Frisk says, looking down at himself. No dust, no tears, and no burns except for some dull phantom pains.

“- and I swear by my great-grandfather’s magic that-” Chara continues, not giving much time to breathe between each word.

“Chara,” Frisk says again, looking back up to Chara after finishing looking over himself.

“- and shove him back into the ground where he belongs -” Chara huffs.

“Chara!” Frisk says, grabbing onto her shoulders and looking her in the eyes as he turns her to face him.

“What?!” Chara snaps at Frisk, still visibly angry at Flowey.

“Look at me,” Frisk says, not breaking eye contact with her.

“How would I be able to see you- oh,” Chara says, cheeks becoming slightly rosy from embarrassment.

Frisk smiled, but it quickly falls when he remembers what was at stake, beginning to rush in the direction of the front door. “Gotta make sure M- er, Toriel and Da- ugh, Asgore, don’t try blocking me from the exit!”

Vines wrap themselves around Frisk’s boots as Flowey pops up and says “Oh no you don’t! We need to have a little chat first!”

“Wha-?” Frisk begins, before falling to the ground with an small ‘oof’, slightly scuffing his hands on the ground. Flowey releases his vines, satisfied with the results, and burrows to in front of Frisk.

“Now, first order of business: Do not tell anyone about what just happened,” Flowey says, summoning the most bossy face he could muster.

“What? Why?” Frisk asked, confused beyond capacity. Flowey just killed him a minute ago, yet now he was trying to… help, in some twisted way?

“I have to agree; why listen to a flower that only killed you just a minute ago ,” Chara said, beginning to kick at Flowey, with little avail.

“Wow, what a sudden breeze,” Flowey said, slightly confused and blinking, but unperturbed, “Well, anyway, there is a reason why you should not tell them, and you want to know what it is?”

“No!” Frisk stubbornly refused, trying to get up, but vines were restraining him.

“Well, too bad!” Flowey said, winking and sticking out a tongue, before switching back to a normal face. “The reason you can’t tell anyone is that what happened minutes ago never happened. No other idiot around here remembers. ”

Silence.

“No. No, no. This couldn’t be happening,” Chara begins saying, shaking her head, “How can he ,” she pointed an arm in Flowey’s direction, “know about that?! No one but us should know about it! How in the world does he know about it?!” she asks aloud, and wraps a hand around his stem, tugging in a fruitless effort to uproot him so as to ask him face to face.

Flowey shivers in place. “Golly, why are there random breezes?” he turns his head as he looks around. “Whoever is causing that, can you stop it?!”

“What do you mean ‘it never happened?” Frisk asked slowly, “I clearly remembered it happening,” he then looks at Chara, “And can you please stop trying to take him out? You know it’s doing nothing much to him.”

Chara blinks, breathes in and out a few times, and, with a sigh, releases her grip on Flowey, giving him a very pointed glare. “He better tell us about how he knows,” she looks at Frisk, “And whatever you do, do not tell him my name. I want as little involvement with that weed as possible.”

Frisk nodded at her, then turned his attention back to Flowey. “My friend wants to know how you know about that.”

Flowey blinks once, then twice, before inhaling and exhaling once. “Your imaginary friend. Right,” he looks around for a few seconds, before his eyes landed on the Floweypot. “You want proof that it never happened? I’ll come with you, and when you see how right I was, I’ll tell you what I know of it.”

Flowey unwinds his vines from Frisk, burrows next to the Floweypot, uproots himself, and climbs into the pot, replanting himself. He looks at Frisk, who hasn’t moved an inch. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get your butt up and take the stupid pot!”

Frisk rushes to his feet, grabs the pot, and with a grunt, lifts it off of the ground, holding it close to his chest for support, and walks into the house. “Now what?”

“What do you think, idiot?” Flowey says in a low voice, “Go over to them and act like you didn’t just watch them turn to dust.”

Frisk gulps and nods, walking into the living room with a prod to the back by Chara.

Like before, Toriel was reading a book about snails, and it appeared that Asgore was tending to the flowers that were on the table, looking at them fondly.

Toriel looks up from her book, noticing Frisk with Flowey, and begins smiling. “Ah, I see that you two have made up, considering how he usually treats newly introduced humans,” Flowey almost seems to wither under the look Toriel gives him, but looks back at Frisk. “But I have to ask: What brings you inside for this day?”

Flowey sprouts a leaf at the base of his stem, waving it nonchalantly. “Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to explain some things to him about this place, from what I’ve learned about it.”

Toriel gives him another stern glare. “Please do not give him one of your ‘evil’ spiels that you like to practice on others.”

Flowey rolls his eyes dramatically. “Gosh, Toriel. You know I haven’t done one of those in nearly a decade.”

He seems to have hit a sore spot, as Toriel sends him a withering glare. Flowey all but shrivels up from it. “Take us into the room,” he squeaks to Frisk, who happily obliges.

Frisk opens the door, letting Chara into the room before entering it himself, and closing the door behind himself before sitting on the bed, resting Flowey’s pot on his lap while giving an expectant expression, nudging Flowey on the head to get him to start talking.

Flowey takes a deep breath and needlessly clears his nonexistent throat before beginning. “Well, just like you noticed, neither of those morons remember anything about what happened. Have any guesses on why they didn’t remember?” he cocks a makeshift eyebrow at Frisk.

“You pretty much time traveled, Frisk,” Chara tells Frisk, taking a breath, “They don’t remember anything because you went back in time,” she makes a pointed glare at Flowey. “That still doesn’t explain how he can remember, though,” she then turns to Frisk with the same expression. “And don’t ask me how I know.”

Frisk takes on a thoughtful glance, before answering to Flowey “I’d guess… time travel?”

Flowey gives a knowing smile. “Wow, you aren’t as big of an idiot as you make yourself out to be. But that does not make you any less of an idiot as you are now.”

“Well then, how do you remember when you killed me?” Frisk asked, narrowing his eyes in the same way Chara was doing.

Flowey gives a more secretive smile. “Hey now. It wouldn’t be wise of me to be blabbing all of my secrets at once, but know this: I’m the only one determined enough to retain my memories.”

“But how?” Frisk asked at the same time as Chara.

“Nuh uh uh,” Flowey says, wagging a summoned vine to the air in the motion of an index finger. “That’s it about that topic. What you really need to do is learn how to use the power!”

Frisk shrugged his shoulders. “What is there to learn about it? I have it, so I’ll learn it on the way.”

Flowey gives a low chuckle, but in the fashion of ‘you have no clue how it works’. “Well, friend , do you want to know what happens when you don’t know how to use it? Timelines jumping left and right, starting and stopping? Or your memories becoming more twisted around like some amateur’s spaghetti?” Frisk shook his head, slightly confused on what Flowey was talking about but beginning to become afraid. “Then you, kid, have better listen to my instructions.”

Frisk scratched the back of his head. “Okay, how do I start to do it?”

“Gotcha. All you need to do is- do it as I say it- pinch your nose, scrunch your eyebrows, think of something disgusting, shake your head, and blow a raspberry. Got it?” Flowey says, but Frisk is too busy doing all of those things to provide an answer.

Chara’s entire form is quaking, in an effort to keep her own giggles from escaping. This quickly dissipates, as she is left laughing her nonexistent lungs out at the same time as Flowey. “Pfft hahahahahahaha! You look like a total moron! ” Chara squeals at the same time as Flowey says “Did you seriously think that would actually work ?! Gosh, you are still relatively easy to fool!”

Frisk frowned and wiped at his eyes, which were becoming moist. “Well then why are you doing this? It’s not funny!” he sniffles.

Flowey’s attitude changed in less than a second, looking at the door nervously before turning back to Frisk. “H-hey, buddy! I’m… sorry, that I did that to you. So! To make it up, I’ll tell you the real way to go back at will, alright?”

Frisk sniffles once again. “You promise?”

Flowey closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, nodding as he says “Alright, I promise.”

“You had better promise, you weed,” Chara says, crossing her arms. “Or else I’ll wring your little stem if I ever become tangible again.”

“Alright, the only thing you need to do is remember the scene of when you last SAVEd. I’ll tell you what I mean if you can manage to LOAD, got it?” Flowey says.

Frisk nods, and closes his eyes, but opens them back up and looks back at Flowey. “How will I know which picture it is?”

“It’ll be the clearest one in your head, moron,” Chara says, looking away.

Frisk closes his eyes once again before Flowey could interrupt. He could see the image clearly in his mind. “Now what?”

“Reach and tug at it like it was a cord. Duh,” Flowey responds. Frisk nods in response.

Frisk reached out and touched it in his mind. Surprisingly, it felt as firm as a real picture frame in his hand. He put his hand around that image in time, and pulled-

Frisk jolted in place as time rewound, losing his balance and falling over, hitting his face on the ground. He lifted himself off of the ground on his arms, noticing blood dribbling down his nose. “Great,” he said, pinching his nose to stem the flow of blood.

Chara tilted her head. “Eh, a much better first attempt than my own,” she looked off into the distance as if remembering a memory. “Took me the better part of a year to learn how to do mine at will.”

Flowey popped up from the leaves. “Considering that we’re still this far into the timeline, I’d consider it to be a success. What do you think?” He looks at Frisk.

“Not so well,” Frisk mumbled, still holding his nose.

“Yeesh,” Flowey said, looking away. “I know that the first few times are usually the worse, but I never thought it would be that bad for a human.”

Frisk waved his hand dismissively. “Just lost balance, is all,” he straightened up, “Well, gonna see if Mom can fix this up,” He begins walking to the door.

“Wait!” Flowey said, popping up in front of Frisk.

“What?” Frisk says, a small drop of blood coming loose and narrowly missing Flowey.

“First, that’s disgusting,” he says as he looks at the small patch of blood. “And second, wouldn’t Toriel wonder how you got a bloody nose? In case it wasn’t obvious, but there aren’t many things around here that could possibly give you a bloody nose, not even Monsters.”

Chara gives a shrug. “He’s kind of got a point; anyway, you could use this as an opportunity to practice using the ability.”

“Ugh, fine,” Frisk said, pinching his nose harder and concentrating on the moment of a minute ago. As he felt the moment in time, he felt another thing next to the moment of the most recent point in time.

Frisk wobbled in place as time turned back, this time bending his knees as he fell, catching himself with his arms. “Oof,” he breathed out, slightly out of breath. “How long until I stop falling to the ground upon it?”

“Eh, it takes several times to get used to it,” Chara says, leaning against the wall.

After a minute, Frisk felt safe enough to stand, Chara helping him up. Flowey, at that moment, decided to pop up. “Well, I take it things didn’t go as bad as last time?”

“Uh huh,” Frisk replied, brushing himself off. “Now, will you tell me more stuff about this stuff.”

“Right,” Flowey said, turning to the yellow star. “You see this here?” Frisk nods, “Well, this is known as a SAVE point. And unless you’re an even bigger idiot than now, you’ll have noticed that, when you LOAD one, you’ll end up at the most recent one that you have SAVEd at.”

“So, I LOADed?” Frisk asked, tilting his head. “And I felt something else back there, like another point in time.”

Flowey looked slightly alarmed. “That would be the RESET option, which will take you all the way back to when you fell down here. And I highly recommend that you don’t touch it!”

“What? Why?” Frisk asked, frowning. “Then it means that you won’t have to attack me, and I’ll already know the puzzles…” he trails off.

“I don’t want to relive yesterday evening and most of today,” Flowey whines, “Besides, I have a reputation to uphold, and your shenanigans will ruin it!”

“Oh, I bet that’s a good reputation to uphold; attacking a child is something worthy to be known for,” Chara says, crossing her arms.

“Okay, Flowey,” Frisk says, nodding. “Guess I’ll have to try again later, considering that you might pester me about leaving the Ruins.”

“Wow, a nice change of pace: not being a major idiot for once,” Flowey says, looking strangely impressed at how Frisk was not resisting.

“I say in the meantime, you should practice with your, uh, LOADing?” Chara suggests, unsure if she used the term correctly.

Frisk nods once again. “I think I’m gonna just practice LOADing for today. Don’t want to risk falling over again if I need to use it again.”

“Uh huh, gotcha,” Flowey says, winking and diving underground.

Frisk turned back to the SAVE point, and begins concentrating on working on LOADing.

Frisk woke up the next morning to the feeling of something pelting his face and Flowey whisper-yelling “Wake up, you idiot!”

“Ugh,” Frisk said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and immediately widens them at the sight of Flowey poking through the cracks of some floorboards. “What are you doing in here?”

“I’m here to tell you that you should leave soon. Like, really soon, got it?” Flowey says.

“I… I dunno,” Frisk said, holding the edge of his blanket tightly. He remembered Asgore and Toriel entering the room last night, tucking him in, and giving a story for the night. That was the first time in his memory that anyone has treated him with that much love.

“You should do it, Frisk,” Chara says, propping herself next to Frisk. “You’ll want to leave this place someday, and trust me. The Ruins will begin to feel small, and besides, it’s not like they’ll tell you that you should nod come back, right?” she says, though only half convinced with her own statement.

“So, what’ll it be?” Flowey says, looking at Frisk with his best solemn face, though he knows it comes off as impatient.

Frisk wipes the building tears from his eyes and nods, tossing the blankets aside and hopping off of the bed. “I’ll do it after breakfast, okay?”

“Gotcha,” Flowey says, before ducking beneath the floorboards.

Frisk leaves the room as quickly as he can, Chara following closely.

He didn’t know whether or not if it was his impending question that was in his immediate future.

“What’s outside the Ruins like?” He asked as innocently as he could.

The rest of it fell into place like the day before, and before Frisk knew it, he was standing before the two goats blocking the way out of the Ruins.

Frisk opened his mouth in an attempt to find something to say.

“*You think of telling them that you watched them turn to dust… But that’s too creepy,” Chara narrates.

The two caretakers sweep their paws in an arc, sending fireballs Frisk’s way. Frisk gets hit a few times, but is relatively unharmed.

Frisk opens his mouth again, but still couldn’t come up with anything to say. “*Can you get past them without hitting them?” Chara says

An idea pops into Frisk’s head as Asgore and Toriel send more flames towards him. Frisk stops mid-step, planting his feet on the ground. He winces as the flames fly around himself, some hitting him, but still has half of his health left.

“What are you doing?” Chara hisses into Frisk’s ear.

“Standing my ground,” he mutters to Chara, looking at the caretakers defiantly.

Asgore and Toriel look at each other confusedly, but turn back to Frisk quickly. They send a spiral of flames at Frisk, who stands his ground. Frisk’s health drops to five before the attack abruptly ends.

“*You puff out your chest in an act of defiance. Toriel has to push down a giggle, because she apparently finds it adorable,” Chara groans.

Frisk lets out a big wince as a fireball hits his foot, but the attack immediately ended, considering he was at only a tenth of what his health originally was.

“Keep going on like that, and they might accidentally cause us to go back,” Chara grumbles.

“Don’t think so. Look!” Frisk told Chara as his turn ended. She looked at what he was meaning.

The flames were deliberately missing Frisk by a few feet. Testing something out, Frisk cautiously walked toward the flames. Asgore and Toriel, seeing what he was doing, moved the fireballs out of his path.

Chara took Frisk’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Frisk. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it! They might begin to see reason!”

“I thought they would stop attacking, but I think I can keep going!” Frisk said to her, “And I will see through to this!” he finished, determination shining in his eyes.

The next several turns pass in the same fashion, with Frisk standing his ground, refusing to attempt hitting them. He was DETERMINED to see through the battle to the end.

“We know you want to see the rest of the Underground…” Asgore and Toriel begin, not bothering to send flames.

Frisk stood his ground.

“But please, go back upstairs,” they continue.

Frisk still stood his ground.

They look at each other, then back at Frisk. “You will be nice and safe here.”

Frisk was not moving from where he was standing.

“No one here who wants your SOUL.”

…

“And Monsterkind won’t have to go to war with humanity.”

…

“Tori, I believe it would be best if we gave him one of our SOULs,” Asgore says.

…

“I… I don’t think that would be the answer, Gorey,” Toriel says, looking downward.

…

“So I guess we have reached a stalemate in what to do, then.”

…

“Why won’t you see that we want to help?”

…

“...”

…

“We might have failed our children, and our kingdom, but this will solve nothing,” Toriel finally says.

“I agree,” Asgore says, nodding at Toriel. “Young one, when we look at you, we see the combination of our two children. The same hope in your eyes as our daughter…”

“And the same tenderness in your heart as our son,” Toriel finished, bowing her head.

Together, the caretakers say “We understand now. If we do not let you pass, then we fear we would be only blocking the potential you have for the Underground. It would not be very wise of us to keep you here, despite what we believe what the Regimists might do to you.”

Asgore and Toriel get out of fighting positions, and look at Frisk. “If you desire to leave the Ruins, we will allow you to pass through.”

“Normally, we wouldn’t allow anyone back into the Ruins, but…” Toriel begins.

“We feel that you would want to return anytime, for any reason you want. And we fear we may be powerless to stop you from doing it,” Asgore finishes, looking at Frisk.

“Please, stay here for a moment, while Asgore and I get some things for you,” Toriel says, to which Asgore nods, and the two go back up the passage.

After a minute of waiting, the two goats return, bundles of clothing in their arms. Frisk opened his mouth in disbelief. “It will be quite chilly outside the Ruins, and neither of us want you to come back as a little Friskcicle,” Toriel says, laughing a little.

Frisk pulls the warm clothing into his arms, tears of happiness in his eyes. Asgore, Toriel, and Chara turn their backs as Frisk quickly changes into the clothes. “Ta da!” he says, holding himself out for everyone to see.

“Dweeb,” Chara mutters, but Frisk apparently doesn’t hear it.

“Oh my goodness,” Toriel says, holding a paw to her mouth in amusement. “I could just pinch your cheek.”

“There is one more thing to do, before you depart,” Asgore says.

“What?” Frisk asks, wondering if there is a catch he didn’t find, closing his eyes.

Two pairs of furry arms envelop him, and he freezes up, realizing what they were doing. Frisk hugs them back. “Th-Thanks, for what you did for me… Mom, Dad,” he says, voice choked with emotion.

Frisk feels the two freeze up, but relax once again. “Well, if calling us that makes you happy, then you may call us whatever you please!” Toriel says.

A moment passes before the hug ends. Asgore and Toriel step back, looking down at Frisk proudly. “Goodbye for now, our child. We hope to see you again, soon.”

Frisk beams at the two, turning around, and with residual tears pushes through the doors with the Delta Rune.

Once the large doors are closed, Asgore places an arm around Toriel for comfort. “I hope he can succeed where we failed our kingdom.”

Toriel nods as she looks down. “And may he bring to the kingdom what the last wishes of Asriel were.”

“I agree, Tori,” Asgore replies, nuzzling Toriel’s nose.

(Authors’ recommendation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBhFHJMVfiI )

It has been several days since Chara has fallen ill, and a few days since she has become unresponsive to nearly everyone but Asriel. Asgore and Toriel were sitting in the living room, talking in hushed voices. Asriel could be heard in the bedroom, desperately pleading Chara to wake up.

“I… I don’t know what we are going to do,” Toriel says, “She responds to no one but Asriel, but I think that even that has gone.”

“I know, Tori,” Asgore responds, “I do not know either, on how to proceed if… if Chara does not make it.”

One of the biggest fears of many parents is their child being stuck in a situation that seems that they can’t escape. The only hope of the two is that Chara could manage to-

Asriel’s pleading abruptly stops, but the sound that replaces it is grave. They hear Asriel make the squealing inhale he makes when something goes very bad, with some rapid breathing of trying not to cry.

“Asriel,” Toriel breathes, and immediately gets out of her seat, Asgore following close behind.

“Asriel, what-” Asgore began as he turned to enter the room, but then a blinding white light poured from the room.

“Asgore, what happened?” Toriel asked as the light began to fade from their vision.

“I don’t know, Tori, but-” Asgore said, but was left staring at what now occupied the room. Toriel gaped as she entered the room with Asgore.

Kneeling beside Chara’s bed was a new… they did not know what to call it. They sensed that they were in the presence of a powerful being.

The being, after a minute of slightly ragged breathing, stood up, and took Chara’s body into its arms. It then turned to Asgore and Toriel.

It was Asriel. He appeared to have absorbed Chara’s SOUL, and became a being of incredible power. But, rather than a horrifying beast like the stories told, he appeared… more like one of his drawings. Specifically, the one he dubbed ‘The Absolute God of Hyperdeath’. His horns were much longer, the normal whites of his eyes turned black with white pupils, and was wearing a purple robe adorned with the Delta Rune. The one thing that made him look like himself was the heart locket hanging around his neck.

“Mother, Father,” Asriel said, with a kind but powerful voice. “Please, let me go fulfill Chara’s final wishes.”

Asgore and Toriel were too dumbfounded to say anything, so Asriel, with great speed, walked past his parents, and began his way to the Barrier.

Seconds later, the King and Queen regained their bearings, and followed their son.

As the family rushed through New Home, some Monsters looked in the direction of the castle, and spotted the royalty following what they saw was a powerful being, but knew who it was. Some Monsters began cheering on the way.

“We’re going to need to make a formal address,” Toriel muttered as they entered the Last Corridor.

“I quite agreed,” Asgore said back.

One minute later, the family was standing before the Barrier, Asriel continuing with his walking while Asgore and Toriel stood back, waving at Asriel as he began to fade through the Barrier.

“Please come back safely!” Toriel shouted, tears pooling in her eyes.

“Make everyone proud!” Asgore shouted as well, smiling in spite of the sadness.

Before Asriel could disappear from sight, they saw him turn around, waving at his parents with a smile, before turning back to the Barrier and running the final stretch of it, completely disappearing from sight, no doubt on the Surface.

“And may we not lose another,” Toriel says in a low voice.

“Again, I do agree,” Asgore says to Toriel. “I do hope the Surface treats him well.”