Will V

** 5
The world has ended.

Snowdin. Frisk shouldn't be here. All of the buildings were lightless. The city had the feeling of emptiness and despair, not a cozy frost-bitten town. The snow strangled the sound out of anything nearby. Frisk heard ringing in her ears.

It was going to be one of those nights.

She gave a few feeble attempts of waking herself up before sighing and started moving through the city. An unknown force drew her towards the golden flowers.

Frisk knew of the power RESET gave her. The ability to do anything without consequence. She had used it to give everyone a perfect ending. She could have taken it all from them. There was this feeling that she had to. Flowey- no, Asriel had seen every ending. He had caused scenes like this, once.

Despite her power, she could never bring herself to do it herself.She had killed people, of course. Mostly accidents. A few out of morbid curiosity. Taking a life, regardless of human or monster, had affected Frisk. But that urge, that seed that demanded wholesale slaughter, it never was sated.

It usually manifested itself in dreams, now. A temptation.

You could go back, Frisk. You could go down the dark path. It would be a new tale. New things to be said. To be heard.

She didn't hear me. Or she was ignoring me. No matter. We'd have a good discussion at the flowers.

Frisk remained unfazed as she stepped into the beam of sunlight. A wave of bitter nostalgia overran her. Life was much more... adventurous. Complicated. It wasn't just a few hours at school and lounging at home, putting off homework to do more interesting things.

A life I could never have. Not after what I did.

Asriel got his happy ending. Frisk got her happy ending. I wouldn't see mine.

Frisk turned.

"I know you're there."

Greetings. So you know who I am.

Frisk gave a small laugh. "Asriel thought you were gone. He thought I was you. Although, judging by your current appearance, I think you took that 'similar fashion sense' a little too seriously."

Imitation is a form of flattery.

"Are you just going to sit there and think things at me or are we going to have an actual discussion, like you wanted?"

The cavern had the same muffled ambiance of Snowdin.

"Forgive me. It has been a while since I've used my 'words'."

Frisk flashed a look of smugness and crossed her arms. A blue sweater appeared over her shirt. That damned sweater.

"What? This is -my- dream. I'm cold."

"I appreciate what you've done for Az."

There we go. Some legitimate shock.

"I... well, I really ruined him, didn't I?"

Frisk averted her gaze to the flowers in the middle of the room.

"If you recognize your mistakes... you can change. No one is beyond redemption. But if you're expecting a new body and a place to crash, I'm not sure where to get started."

Partn-

"No. If you've learned anything from this you'd realize that's not the way to go."

"You're right, of course."

I sighed and sat down, staring at the flowers with her.

Frisk gazed back at me. "I meant it. Anyone can be redeemed. If you've been following me half as long as I think you have, you know that there are alternatives. There's good with the bad. You cared for monsters, once. Dad committed some pretty messed up shit."

He didn't have a choice.

"He did. It was a lesser of two evils kind of choice. You forced him into that. But he still had a choice. Six people died from that choice, and I didn't know those people. They could have been like me. They could have been like you, or anywhere in between." She hesitated. "Not that you're the epitome of evil, or anything."

"I appreciate the attempt. I wouldn't say you're the epitome of goodness, either. The sign said 'Please take one'."

A laugh broke through the stiffness in the air. The cave felt almost like itself again.

It felt good. A shame it had to end.

Frisk shuffled nervously in her spot. "So. I don't think you brought me into this just to tell me I've treated Azzy right. And I'm getting conflicted signals here. Suggesting mass murder along with being thankful for what I've done."

It was my turn to cross my arms. "I can't have a chat with my darling sister?"

Her face went beet red. It was adorable.

"I, uh, don't think that's what I'd call the relationship we have right now. Especially with the whole 'devil on the shoulder' act you've been giving me the past few years with these dreams."

"Well, I've accepted that I can't convince you to just reset. I wanted you to get comfortable before I brought our third member to this party."

"No. No. If you care about him, you won't do this."

She was standing up now. Defiant.

"You won't reset for me. Perhaps I can give you another reason to set the clock back. Something a little more permanent."

And in a burst of light there he was.

"W-what?"

Asriel turned to look at us. His eyes swept past Frisk and were directly on me.

"I was having such a nice dream too."

"Greetings, brother."

"This is what I get for having sugar before be-" Az had a sudden look of shock on his face. He started patting down his body and looking around frantically.

"This isn't your normal nightmares, Asriel. You're not going to turn, don't worry."

Frisk gave Asriel a weary smile and pointed towards a stone for him to sit on. "It's like a goddamn AA meeting for people with time-travel." She let loose a sigh and buried her head into the fur of her sweater hood.

Az snapped out of his locked gaze with me and stared back at Frisk. The wave of relief was animated across his face.

"S-so what's this about. then? Why is Chara here?"

"I know you think I'm not the best person, Asriel, but could you feign some surprise that your long-dead sibling is speaking to you?

Frisk raised an eyebrow.

"I've... had a lot of time to think about what we did, Chara. When I thought Frisk was you, I was overjoyed. You were back! Everything was going to be fun again."

...

"But.. I've had a while to think about things. What I did as Flowey was wrong. What we did as kids was wrong."

"I'm still a child, Asriel. I didn't get the leisure of growing up."

"That's no ones fault but yours. You wanted to get back at humanity so badly you ruined our family to do it."

"Asriel. The plan was to free monsters. We only needed six!"

"You wanted to kill them all." Asriel shifted slightly. An inky, malevolent maw and black eyes replaced his innocent green eyes and gentle features. "Kill or be killed, right?"

Frisk was suddenly upright as well. "Az. No."

"Bullshit. You can't pin this on me. You're right. You are still a child. You can't just have everything be forgiven because you're sorry. Because you saw someone do better. There isn't any honesty in those eyes. That empty smile. You're so full of shit!"

"Asriel. Don't let Chara rile you up. This is what they want."

Frisk was too smart for her own good. She knew what I was up to. I might need to remove her.

"If I could go back? If I could retain my memories, and reset to the day I found you, Chara, I'd do everything differently." He was standing now. A robe now draped down his frame.

This was good. Time to stoke the flames. "Isn't that delicious? The little monster prince has the power of hindsight!"

Frisk was attempting to shake Asriel out of his rage.

"Sorry, sister. We're moving this to his head. You're going to snuff the fire."

**

Frisk woke up panting. Cold sweat covered her body. She sat up. "Az."

No response. He was normally a light sleeper.

"Asriel."

She reached over for the light. Asriel was levitating in bed.

This was not good. Not at all. Alphys. Phone. Now.

Asleep. God damnit.

She ran over to Asriel's bed and forced his levitating ass back into the bed. He wasn't going to wake up like this.

Sans?

She dialed.

"hey kiddo. little late for a prank call."

"Sans! I'm having Asriel problems. I need some help."

"well you two are technically siblin-"

"Alphys-grade problems. Not Flowey, but something probably worse. Can you wake her?"

"ah sheesh. ok, hold on."

Frisk realized she had been trying to slap Asriel awake while on the phone. His face was bright red through his fur. And his cheeks had black tattoos permeating the fur. No. This was the exact opposite of good. She pulled one of his eyelids open and saw black sclera.

A wooshing sound filled the room.

"H-hey! Sorry, Undyne was sleeping on my phone."

"He's turning, but not into Flowey." Alphys moved over to the side of the bed. "W-what is he turning into, then?"

Shit. None of them knew about the Hyperdeath fight.

"Let's just say it'd be a lot worse."

"Point t-taken." Alphys pulled out some tools and monitoring equipment. Asriel was getting harder to hold into his bed.

**

A battle was raging inside Asriel's head.

A literal battle. Chara got what they wanted. Stars and lasers littered the cavern. While Asriel attempted to obliterate Chara, the other opted to use nothing but mocking commentary.

"Isn't this adorable? Who knew that beneath that childlike innocence lay the greatest mage in the Underground?"

"Shut up."

"I wonder if you can control this when you wake up? Or if you'll lash out at your friends like the child you are!"

"Shut up!"

There was a voice prickling the back of Asriel's head. He couldn't focus on it. Not yet.

There was no facade of a person with total control. Asriel snarled as he threw a cacophony of spells at Chara, each narrowly missing their mark.

"Asriel. Stop."

Everything fell dead. That deafening muffled silence overtook the cavern.

"Frisk?"

Chara looked annoyed. "Come on, you dumb oaf. No one's here but you and me."

"Asriel. Snap out of it. Wake up."

"you really got frisk's goat, kid. wakey wakey. i can't be a lazy bones at three in the morning."

"A-Asriel, wake up! You're breaking all of my equipment!"

Asriel hovered in the air, talking to someone outside of Chara's sight or hearing. They can't break through already.

"You can't leave me, Asriel. You're the reason I'm dead!"

He turned sorrowful eyes towards Chara.

"I'm sorry, I can't play anymore. I need to go."

"No, you bastard! You don't get out of this that easily! I'll be back!"

"I know."

"You can't reverse this."

"I can try. Frisk taught me that."

The silence claimed the cave again.

Asriel lowered his head. A tear smacked against stone.

"I'm sorry."

**

Asriel opened his eyes to a sore cheek and Frisk sitting cross-legged on his chest.

No one noticed the blush under the already present red from the smacks.

It got a shade darker when Asriel noticed the black marks all over the room.

"Ah jeez."

"You're awake, thank God."

Sans was looking disapprovingly at holes burned through his and Frisk's sweaters.

"It was all just a bad dream." Frisk smiled at Az and started drumming on his snout. "Although... you might want to look at a mirror.'

Alphys tossed a piece of reflective metal (from a broken instrument, most likely) towards them and Asriel took it all in. Two black symmetrical lines ran down his cheeks. His eyes had shifted to a much lighter green, but the sclera had cleared back into a creamy white. His horns ere noticably darker. He would have checked for tattoos... elsewhere, but Frisk was still perched on top of him.

As if reading his mind, she hopped off and snickered. "You were doing the full blown Exorcist floating around the room shit. I didn't want you to hit the ceiling fan. Although it might have woken you up faster."

"What... was that, exactly? How did Ch-"

"Bad dream. We'll talk about it later. I need coffee." She slipped off her sweater and tossed it onto her bed. "Thanks for the help, guys. Was starting to panic there."

"no prob, frisk. i'll take alphys back home. call me if you need me again."

"S-same! I'll keep my phone in a safer place."

Sans grabbed her hand and unceremoniously blinked out of the room. Asriel had a brief glimmer of curiosity. Maybe he could do that now.

"Well, you're getting coffee and staying up with me, mister Hyperdeath. I'm not explaining to Mom and Dad your tattoos."

"They're still asleep?!"

"Yep. Remember that sound dampening spell you taught me?" Frisk beamed triumphantly. "A bit harder to block out explosions than bits of guitar, but that combined with them being super heavy sleepers helped."

Asriel was standing out of bed now. The image of his mage persona sitting in Santa pajamas will forever be burned into Frisk's mind, for better or worse. "Am I safe to just... carry on? I lost it in there, a bit."

"Yeah, well, keep it. We can talk later, but you seem lucid enough now. Don't let the little bully get to you. Chara is pretty obviously powerless aside from messing with our dreams." Frisk ruffled Asriel's hair and grabbed another one of Sans' sweaters out of the closet. "I'll go grab the coffee. You're in charge of breakfast. No burning the house down with rainbows."

Asriel let out a defeated sigh. Chara had a purpose for this. It itched the back of his mind, but he couldn’t figure out what would come of it.