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You’re alive. It’s a distant pounding in your head, the sensation of pain in a body that’s not your own, but you can feel it and it’s enough to stir you from your sleep.
You’re awake. You stare up and see a ray of sunlight peeking in through a hole in the mountain and it’s familiar, it’s all so familiar, but instead of landing in vines and dirt, you’re laying a bed of golden flowers. You feel the faintest connection with the ground beneath you and you don’t realize why at first until it hits you. That’s your grave! You sit up and laugh before finding control of your body being yanked away from you.
Oh. You’re not alone, then. This body is not yours, and the child to whom it belongs is still alive, still awake, their soul pounding with fear as they pull control of themself away from you. Hmph. Fine then. So be it. You’ll get your way eventually.
The child shakily stands up and wanders through a doorway, only to be confronted by… a flower? Thinly disguised malevolence drips from its every word and it’s so uncharacteristic of him that you don’t even realize what’s going on at first, until something about the way that voice wraps around its words hits you. It’s him! So he’s not dead either, huh? Figures. From the looks of it, it would seem he’s been alive for a while, too, albeit in this twisted form. That’s… unfair? Actually… no, you got the better end of the deal here. Even now, you can feel the Determination within this child’s SOUL giving you strength. They may be able to resist you for now, but that same force that lets them force you back will also give you power. All you need is a chance.
He attacks, and you’re almost proud, though a bubble of anger wells up within you. Where was that malice then? The confrontation doesn’t last long, though, with a familiar voice and a ball of magical fire coming to the child’s defence. Heh, so she’s here now, too? This is turning out to be quite the family reunion.
Toriel walks the child through the Ruins and you can feel their confidence growing under her praise. That is, until she leaves, and the child is alone with nobody but you. Reluctantly, they step forward into the next room, pausing for a moment to gather their Determination before heading onward. They don’t make it far before a Froggit jumps out and attacks them.
They brandish only a stick, but with the force of their fear driving their attacks, it’s enough. The creature crumbles into dust, and they stare. You almost expect them to burst into tears, but you’re surprised by them stepping forward, clutching their stick a little tighter. Perfect. You doubt they understand the weight of their actions, but frankly? You don’t care. You edge them on, influence their emotions and make sure they fight back whenever attacked.
By the end of the Ruins, their boots are coated in dust. They’ve swapped their stick out for a useless plastic knife and have tied an old ribbon in their hair. LV 5.
It’s getting almost too easy for them and it unsettles you somewhere deep within yourself. You weren’t expecting them to kill her. You wonder if they even see this world as real at all. No, stop that. You can’t afford to care anymore. After all, they didn’t really care about you, did they? They chose to just bury you in a corner of the Ruins and forget you ever existed. You died for them! They just didn’t know it. And they would have, if he hadn’t messed it all up!
He’s here again. He laughs and agrees to tear this world apart with you and it pisses you off. You know that’s not even him anymore, it’s just some disgusting echo, and you want to cut him out of your way and move on, move on and stop feeling so damn much. He lets you keep going after a few moments, and you have to force this body to move. You’ll show him.
It escalates, snowballs out of anyone’s control and before you know it, you’re in a too-familiar house, and he’s following you, telling you how he came to be reborn like this. His high voice and empty words are infuriating and when he finally realizes that there’s nothing to protect him, when he finally lets fear drip into his corrupted consciousness and tries to escape, you hesitate only a moment before tearing him apart.
It’s not as satisfying as you were hoping it’d be. You shake your head violently, wrap your hand around your locket and squeeze until your fingernails dig into your skin painfully, then head downstairs.
That skeleton who confronted you back in Snowdin is here and oh, fuck he’s stronger than you thought. You die and die and die again and then finally when you get a hit in and kill him, you’re about to move on when you find that control of your body is… gone.
They have it. They’re sobbing and won’t move from where they’ve fallen on the floor, surrounded by dust. Their voice squeaks out half a word before being broken off by their own cries, and you can’t do anything to stop it, you can’t stop them and before you know it, the world is being ripped away and created anew.
Sunlight filters in through a hole in the mountain. Golden flowers bloom around you, and you’re sore from the fall but uninjured. You’re alive and you’re awake and you can’t fucking move.
The child stands up shakily, looking at their hands, no longer stained gray by dust. They’re weak, no EXP, no LV, and they turn their face to the ceiling and laugh hysterically until it turns into a scream, until their throat hurts and tears run down their face.
Part of you is furious. Another part is grateful. You don’t know what would have happened if… no, stop it, you don’t CARE! You don’t!!
He’s not in the room where he confronted you the first time. Good riddance. Toriel appears nonetheless, her voice as sweet as ever, and the child cries out, running forward and hugging her legs, the fabric of her robes clenched in their fists.
She’s confused, surprised and worried, but she kneels down and pulls the child into a hug before lifting them up and carrying them through the Ruins, taking away any chance for them to kill again.
They refuse to fight back when Toriel confronts them at the exit to the Ruins, and eventually, she gives in, letting them go with a hug and a request to not return.
“Really, Chara?”
The skeleton approaches them at the bridge, and they burst into tears again, shivering in fear. He seems to recognize them from the other timeline (how?), but he must either not remember the details, or is entirely too soft for his own good, because he pulls them into a hug. If you could, you’d yell at him to STOP, to stop being so nice when this kid killed him and everyone else just a timeline ago! But you can’t. They have control now, and fight as you may, you can’t seem to get it back.
Monsters attack them, and every single time they cower in fear. They die repeatedly. That royal guard, Undyne, is ruthless in tearing them down over and over and you can feel them getting more frustrated, itching to fight back. They manage to escape her, letting her collapse of heat stroke and running away, only find find themselves being assailed by a robot, Mettaton. It’s so ridiculous you could laugh, and after the third time they burn to death in Hotland, they start to fight back. Finally. You were getting really sick of that; just because you’re not in control doesn’t mean you can’t feel this body’s pain. It’s distant but it still sucks.
In New Home, monsters surround them to tell your story, to tell them about your death. It’s disturbing and you push them forward through the house as quickly as you can. They put on your locket, grab the dagger you used for gardening, and nervously head into the basement.
The skeleton is there, disappointed in them for killing, but not violent. You guess he doesn’t care so long as his brother is alive. They push onward, finally meeting Asgore, and you almost feel bad when they nearly kill him. They’re too nice, of course, they don’t finish him off, but it doesn’t matter because suddenly he’s back and he does it for them before stealing the six human souls and transforming himself into a horrifying abomination. They find themself showered in bullets, dying over and over again, until it seems there’s no end in sight. However, ultimately, the souls rebel, tearing him down and leaving the world with just you, the child, and him in a darkened void.
He begs them to kill him. They don’t.
The world is torn away, and created anew.
You have no power left over them. They’re too determined to do it right this time. They carry a stick in one hand as they wander through the puzzles of the Ruins, as the two skeleton brothers joke around and tease them through Snowdin. They pet all the dogs and go to hang out with Papyrus in his house before heading onward. They get lunch with the other one, the one who’s on to you, and smile at him the whole time. They run away from the guard and when she collapses from heat stroke they give her a cup of water to help her recover. They play along with all of the robot’s scenes and entertain the scientist’s lies. They’ve become downright skilled at dodging attacks, and have only been killed once.
The skeleton judges them and is proud. They wear your locket but carry only that stick as they head into the throne room and confront Asgore. Toriel drives him off before he can attack them, and every monster they’ve spared shows up to encourage them, even as he comes back and takes the human souls once again. You don’t anticipate what happens next, though, even if the rest of this timeline has been boringly familiar.
He takes the souls of every monster in the Underground and transforms into a too-familiar child with a big grin and bright eyes. He addresses you by name before changing himself again, becoming the adult he never got to be, using the attacks he worked so hard to try and develop as a child. You remember them all by name, and even as reality crumbles around you, you feel obliged to tell the child every single one, to encourage them to save him as they do with all their friends. He deserves better than this.
They pull Asriel into a hug and reassure him of their forgiveness. He breaks the barrier, and you’re proud of him.
Frisk goes back to talk to him, refusing to leave. He tells them that maybe he shouldn’t have trusted you (he’s right, you were always horrible, you were never anything but a demon, you deserved to die) and that he wishes that he could have been their friend. They smile and hold his hand, and he cries.
They refuse to leave with their friends, and though they don’t say it out loud, you know it’s because the memory of killing them all still weighs heavy in their mind.
You do what you can to help them this time.
* It wasn’t your fault.
* You decide to just take some time to live your life in peace.
* Perhaps you should talk to Flowey. Maybe he has some advice for you?
* You’ll be okay.