Chapter Text
Author's Note: This story was also conceived as Under Reverse Tale or Second Chance Tale a long time ago if it sounds familiar. However, that isn't the same either. I lost access to that story and only retrieved bits of it. Using what bits I had, I had created a new story. So this is probably more than likely the beginning of the real action plots toward my Undertale Offline series because this is where the idea of multiple worlds being kept apart first started to settle in with me.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy some more reading of a world you were not expecting (probably.) World 10.
“A human is attacking!” Sans heard from his stand. Monsters were going nuts as they heard the news. Déjà vu. He knew this part. He heard cries telling him to get out and vacate the lab, to run to safety. Evacuation.
“Sans!” another monster yelled for him. “What are you doing? We have to go.”
“Nah.” Sans looked at his hotdog. “You wanna hear something really sad? I’m out of ketchup.” The monster ran away from him. A human on a rampage. It sounded familiar.
As he took a shortcut home to Snowdin, he could see how familiar it had been. Everyone had vacated except for a few monsters here and there. He moved down the snow, into a place without snow. A small home with four mushroom lights that squeaked in the front. He held the prison key to open the little house. It was something he only did to leave food.
He only did that so it remained calm. He didn’t waste good food like Grillby’s, he tended to buy the garbage food Bratty and Catty had. After all these years, he hadn’t even seen the thing in a long time. There was a chance that this might actually backfire. He had to hope that feeding it and keeping it safely under lock and key was good enough for it to . . . help.
Once upon a time, it brought about great destruction. He was the only one that stopped its warring path. He had no idea what part of his words reached it, or if it just faced the fact it couldn’t beat him. Either way, it quit. A part of Sans was happy about it, but a greater part felt nothing. He had saved the Underground. Saved the survivors left. Saved the king.
But he lost everyone else, including the most important skeleton in the world to him: Papyrus.
He took a shortcut in the house, half feeling like he was opening up Pandora’s box. Who cared though, he already knew the might of the human soul. “Hey?” He called out toward the bed it was sleeping in. “Another one of you humans came down and it’s dusted everybody it can find up to Snowdin so far. What’re you going to do about it?” He waited, to see if it moved from beneath its covers. “Either come kill me or talk to it.” Another human was the only chance they had to make it quit.
The human moved its head from beneath the covers and looked at him. The he/she had grown. It was a she now. “Age.”
“Don’t know. Sounds like kid,” Sans said, still unsure if it would help. She chewed on her nail.
“I’ll need clothes that fit,” she said. “Then take me to it.”
“Clothes. Fine.”
“A tutu with a top at least.”
Good. Looked like it wasn’t going to join it. Looked like it at least. Sans went and got some clothes that looked like they would fit and dropped them off. He unlocked the front door and went out. “When you’re ready.”
The clothes weren’t the best, but she seemed to fit in them fine. She looked out the door and took a step out. She continued on her way out the door. She didn’t kill any monsters in her path and most of them were running away as soon as they saw her anyhow. None of the monsters knew where he kept her. She went through the snow and upward.
“It’s past here.” Sans would have to give her a shortcut. “Come on.”
After a quick trip, she moved toward the little genocidal maniac. Monsters ran in all directions from both of them.
She stood in front of the boy as he pulled her into a fight. She didn’t move as he tried to hit her with his toy knife. “Cute.”
Frisk watched the little boy. Towhead. Eight or nine. Scared and raging out of his mind. “Don’t play with me, little boy. I’m level 19 and I have a human soul. One swipe from my real knife and you are dead.” That seemed to calm him down. “There’s no way out. Forget trying to get stronger so you can fight the king. It’s not happening. You’ll never see your home again. You’ll never leave the barrier.”
The child tried to strike again. She made it mad of course. No one wanted to hear that they couldn’t go home. “You happened to climb the mountain. Proving something to your friends? Wanting to look at it, to see if it was real and accidentally fell?"
“I didn’t mean to fall,” he said. “I want to go home. If it all exists, then a king exists.”
“At first, it was scary,” Frisk said, knowing she was finally breaking through to him. “Weird frogs jumped at you, but it was so easy to take them down. Then when you knew how easy it was to take EXP from them? You knew what you had to do to get home. It’s not enough. What’s your name?”
“Kevin,” he answered. “What’s it take? I want to go home!”
“It’s over. You fell and it’s over,” Frisk told him again.
“I can get strong enough! I can beat the king!” he insisted. “I can dust every monster, and I can beat him! I have to!” The little boy was starting to cry. “If I don’t, they’ll kill me. They fight me. I have to.”
Gimmick crying or real crying? Trying to manipulate her emotions or not? “They fight you because they’re scared. You’re different. You fight them because you’re scared. They’re different,” Frisk answered him wisely. “Being scared only leads to suffering and death. Stop rampaging through here, trying to collect enough to take on the king.” She held her real knife at him.
“But what do I do?” He asked. “What do I do? I gotta go home, I can’t just stay here! I’ll die.”
Frisk could have put her knife away and reached out for his hand, letting her defense down. Yet, it was a perfect human trick to make someone feel safe and then strike. “I’m not putting down my real knife. If you are coming at me with that toy knife, then come at me. I’ll try not to murder your soul completely in one whack, but I guarantee nothing, Kevin.”
Kevin held his toy knife close. “What do I do?”
“Realize that you made a mistake. You fell and you’ll never see your family or the sky again.”
“No!”
“Kevin. Besides your name, what else do you remember?” There. She hated to pull it out in battle but he was continuing to be a brat. EXP created a lot of bratty stubbornness in a human when they first inherited it.
“I can’t give up.” Kevin held his toy knife at her. “I’ll break through the barrier, and I’ll be free to remember more than just my name.” He rubbed his eyes.
“Don’t open them very much, do you? Every time you do, you know what a monster would see.” Tears. Breaking down. She had kept her eyes shut too in the past. She battled most of the time with her eyes closed, sealing herself off from what she was doing.
They were only monsters. It was the mantra that kept her going. They were just terrible monsters. When they tried to break down and show mercy, she could even strike harder. She had liked that. The whole way it wasn’t so hard as long as she waited until tough monsters were at their weakest and she killed off every other monster she could possibly meet. Anything to get out. Besides, even if she could be turned into not hurting anyone, she felt that regret fester as soon as she killed Toriel.
There was no changing her mind. No one would protect her but herself. She was strong with a human soul. Monsters were easy.
It was why Kevin was having such a hard time right now, accepting that it really had been over. There was no second chancing with any determination with her. She had a human soul like him, and she could kill him dead. She didn’t want to, but she would.
She really didn’t want to. It would be nice to have a future with him. She already had ideas and visions of what she wanted, what would be nice. However, if he was too far gone, she would take him out. The boy would never reach the unending brutal fight with Sans the Skeleton.
It was the only reason she ever stopped. None of that skeleton’s words reached her, she just couldn’t beat him. No matter how many times she came back, some things couldn’t be changed. Winning against Sans was like a five year old passing a geometry test. Without extreme intelligence and will power, that would never happen.
Frisk was no genius. She walked up a final time, but stopped fighting. Sans and her had stood in front of each other, much like she was doing with Kevin now. It didn’t take long for him to figure it out.
She would stop. Frisk was human though and couldn’t survive down there. She needed shelter and food and the bravest of monsters would keep coming after her until her EXP rode so high, she’d forget who she’d even been. He seemed to already understand that. He was smarter than he had ever let on.
He took a shortcut to a small house and sealed her off inside. There would be no garage for her, he wanted her nowhere near his home or along the path of monsters. He locked her in.
She had a bed. He brought food, knowing if she died, her determination could bring her back again, and maybe not starting from in there.
That was Frisk’s life now, along with other things Sans didn’t know.
She finally watched Kevin break down and drop his toy knife. Now it was safe to put her real knife away. She went over to the young boy and picked him up.
With him in her arms, she went toward Sans. “I’ll take care of him.”
“A growing collection of humans.” Not a joke. Just a statement. There would be no thanks, nor would she want any. He took a shortcut and brought her back to the small house.
He locked the door behind them again.
“I don’t want to be locked up for life like a prisoner!” Kevin yelled at her.
Children. “Child,” Frisk warned him. “The world doesn’t work the same down here as it did up there. Be grateful you live. Come.” She took his little hand and then? Finally smiled at him. “Welcome home, Kevin. I will take the best care I can of you. You have someone else who is going to love you just as much.”
“What?” Kevin seemed confused of course. So had Frisk when she first came down. “Who?”
“He’s the most special of monsters,” Frisk said as she picked the boy up gently. She went toward the back and opened the door along the crease of the wall. It was something Sans had not caught onto, or didn’t care to catch onto. “He’s messed up in his life too, just like us. We’re all the same in the end.”
Her eyes met Asriel’s soft ones in return when she opened the door. “Asriel.” She held Kevin even closer. “Look.”
Asriel came toward Kevin, not touching him right away. “Howdy. My name’s Asriel. I’m going to be your new dad.”
“No, no.” Monsters worked so much faster in that way. “We start as friends with him. That’s the human way.” Frisk smiled at Kevin, and then at Asriel. “His name is Kevin, Honey,” Frisk said to him. She looked back toward Kevin, to see if he would allow Asriel to come closer. Seeing he wasn’t as frazzled, she encouraged Asriel to touch him.
“Hi, Kevin.” Asriel touched the top of his head in the same way his father once had. “Welcome to your new home. It’s not as bad as it seems.” He gestured to Frisk. “Thanks to her.”
“Thanks to you too,” she said. She sat the little boy down. “This is our backroom, it’s where we spend most of our time. No one knows Prince Asriel is actually here and he would like to keep it that way.” Most likely, the boy would never even see anyone again, but just in case he did have a run-in with Sans.
“I don’t have a ton of magic. Sans helps to keep Frisk fed,” Asriel said to Kevin. “The rest of the time, I’ll try to whip something up back here for you too.”
It was an emotional time. Kevin was coming to grips with the new life he’d just been dropped into, and Frisk and Asriel were about to share their story to an outside for the first time.
Well, part of it.
Asriel had been reborn from determination and his own leftover dust. He had been a flower for some time, visiting her when she first arrived. Curious about her. Convinced about her being his sister, Chara.
Frisk had learned overtime the truth. Flowey was a sociopath, he could be good or bad. When she kept him on a good side, she learned more about his sister and him. He was a very talkative flower, and once she knew the secret to restoring his form?
She changed her own life forever. She split her human soul with him. A normal person couldn’t have done it, but Frisk wasn’t a normal person.
After that kind of bonding, and now being back, Asriel could have left her there, but he wouldn’t do it. He stayed in the back with her, not feeling comfortable about joining out into the Underground again. Not after everything. Not all the questions.
It was no surprise after that, once they both started to grow up, that they had bonded close enough to form a relationship.
Her first kiss. Her first date. Her first everything. Even if they couldn’t officially have a ceremony too, Asriel swore one day he would marry her if she wanted him.
She swore that she would agree to be his arranged wife.
Until that day, if they had to share themselves, they would lie that they were already married.
It always seemed the best to Asriel. If anything happened to him, it would protect her.
Frisk never minded. One day they'd be married anyhow.
They could have both won the snuggling championship from the Underground several times over the years. They were made for each other and it would always be that way.
At least. That’s what she had believed.
————————————-
Sans sat down in Grillby’s. Not really eating, just sitting down. Now that the residents were getting the word the human had disappeared again, life was moving back to the way it had been. A couple questioned him, but most assumed it just quit and disappeared somewhere just like the last raging human fifteen years ago.
Fifteen years ago. “I’ll take one now.” Sans looked toward Grillby. “Do I get it free for saving the day?” A few residents that were now in the area laughed at his pathetic joke. He took his order and stared at it.
“I know you didn’t want to, but you did the right thing.”
Sans glanced beside him. The goat. He’d known someone had stayed beside Frisk in that house. He didn’t care who or why. At first it was just a flower that moved all over the place, but now it was a full fledged goat monster. Well, it was what it was. He had all the trademarks of royalty though.
“I am Asriel.”
Hm. “Nice to meetcha.” He looked back at his burger. “Your dad is on the other side of the kingdom. Your mom’s dead. Sorry about that.”
“You know that I’ve been with the human.”
Yes, of course he knew Asriel had been with the human. “Yep. Don’t care.” As long as she wasn’t savagely murdering everyone again, he didn’t care. He would have had to care if Undyne and the whole Royal Guard were around. There was no Royal Guard, he was it. The lonely sentry that took care of everything. Still? He was just as lazy as ever. He stood watch sometimes, but mostly sold his hot dogs and made conversations with others to get through his days.
“We are monsters. We forgive,” Asriel said to him. “I don’t want this anymore for her. I want the human woman to be able to get out and live with the boy.”
Sans didn’t even flinch. “Heh, I never considered that. Rampaging was exciting I guess but nah, the death toll rose too fast.” Most monsters believed they were dead or had disappeared forever. Why would he ever do something as foolish as let her out? Besides, she could get out if she wanted. He just wouldn’t feed her and more hell would happen.
“If I undid all the pain she caused, then I want a royal decree that my family would be fine.”
Sans looked back at Asriel. Soft, funny goat. “You’re ramming up the wrong tree. Go talk to your dad, not me.”
“You’ve taken care of my human. My power is limited and I wouldn’t have been able to get what she needed without coming out into the kingdom,” he confessed. “I didn’t want to.”
Ah. He wanted Sans to ask for some kind of forgiveness and guarantee they would be okay to Asgore for him? “I’m just a sentry. Nobody special, Chum.”
“I’d erase it all. Monsters would come back confused, but they’d be back.”
Sans took a bite of his burger.
“Including your brother, Papyrus.”
Sans set down his burger. To even believe that a little would hurt. All conversation stopped there. Papyrus’ name was like a blue stop sign, Asriel melted any kind of chance he’d talk further to him.
“I see. I understand, Sans,” Asriel said as he gave up on the conversation. “I will talk to my father first then, but I want you to promise me one thing? That you’ll continue to watch over the humans.”
Ouch. Sans felt a degree of hope hit him senselessly. He had to answer back. “Buddy, if you bring back Papyrus, and if they don’t go round dusting, then I guarantee the maniacs would be safe.”
“Not just locked up in that little house without anyone to talk to,” Asriel continued further. “Monsters will still be mad. Everyone is going to try and take a shot at them. Don’t let them near the human woman, she’ll be fragile. Especially not the boy, the EXP is light within him, but it’s still dangerous. She's always warned me to never take any human lightly that fell, even if it was saved. So? He could start to kill and then the other human would have to kill him. She shouldn’t do that. Ever.”
Then, the other shoe dropped.
“The human woman isn't just a friend, she is my wife. She is the Princess of the Underground. She should be protected. Take me to my father.”