Finally, you could rest. The ache in your elderly bones seemed to fade away and you felt a clear-headedness you hadn't experienced in years. You opened your eyes to look at the figures standing around you, vaguely aware of crying—but the figures could not come into focus, and the sounds were muffled s though underwater. You felt a sense of grief in this room, but only found contentment in yourself. Why were they so sad? You did you best to smile at the figures and pulled one out last bit of Determination from your tired soul to tell them all goodbye. To tell them that you loved them. And then, peacefully, your eyes drifted closed and you gave one long, calm, final exhale. Everything went black.

THE END.

RESET?

I've been here before. You stared at the thick, blocky letters looming before you. You've been here. You'd forgotten, but you've been here. You took a step back, suddenly feeling so small. The words towered over you. They were so bright it hurt to look at. You took another step back. They seemed to follow. Panic filled you. You turned and ran, but lost your footing. And suddenly there wasn't ground beneath your feet anymore.

You felt an impact; pain shot through your entire body. You were afraid to open your eyes, afraid of what you'd see. Soft, gently breezing leaves tickled at your skin. It smelled damp, earthy, and floral here. You squeezed your eyes shut and wrapped your arms around your aching ribs.

"Howdy!"

And then you knew there was no more denying it. Your eyes shot open and found a smiling face look back at you. You watched each other a moment; the plant looking expectant. You made no expression at all.

"I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!"

You looked around you. It had been years since you've been here, but at this moment it felt like you'd never left. The Underground. The Ruins. You were aware the flower was speaking, but you knew the speech by heart. Any moment it would try and trick you with those stupid pellets. You stood up.

"H-hey…!"

You didn't even give the plant a glance. You tried stepping right over it, ignoring the dull pain you felt across your back from the fall. But now you were shorter than you're used to and you ended up accidentally kicking poor Flowey in the face. He didn't seem to like that and started sputtering all kinds of mean words, but you just couldn't bring yourself to care. You were just about to leave the room but you hesitated at the door—what the hell did you really plan on doing here? You glanced back, your eyes looking upwards towards the open roof. It was dark, but you saw the moon and stars poking through the canopy of the forest above. Last time you saw those woods, they'd been cut down for development. And now they were back, just like you. Did the trees remember dying?

With a shake of your head at such a stupid question, you pushed the door open and stepped through—leaving Flowey confused and infuriated behind you.

And then there she was. Despite yourself, you smiled. Toriel looked surprised to see you, but didn't hesitate to approach. "Hello, my child!" Ha, child. "What are you doing down here?" She eyed your scrapes and bruises with a worried furrow of the brow. "You are hurt! You must be so frightened. But do not worry, you are safe with me." She took your hands into her wide, soft paws and led you through the caverns. Despite the darkness of this place, you never felt afraid here. Maybe the first few times—you couldn't really remember that far back. But you had quickly learned this was a safe place. No monster here could hurt you.

But man, oh man, could you hurt them. You shuddered. That was a bad time in your life (lives). You'd learned the hard way what violence does to you. Who it lets in.

Even after Toriel separated with you, you had no trouble navigating the ruins. You remembered exactly where the traps were set and what levers needed pulling. You still had a little trouble staying patient with that talking rock, though. As you walked, you considered your situation with more than a little exasperation. You always had some trouble remembering previous lives—mainly the variations between each life. It was only easy to remember the path to take through the leaves to keep from falling below because you'd seen it hundreds of times.

Did you make it to the surface last time? You thought you did. You strained to remember what had happened, but like a dream, your memory of it was frustratingly just beyond your reach. You remember being happy, at least. And tired. You know you were dying, but dying was always a part of resetting—every death brought you to the same golden garden. However, something about this particular death seemed different. It didn't seem so… violent.

"Frisk! I was just about to call!" Toriel wrapped you in a hug. You hadn't even realized you were already here. The hug felt nice and she smelled like home. She led you by the hand past the dead tree and into her cozy, inviting home. It smelled like books, the burning coals of a fireplace, and fresh cinnamon-butterscotch pie. You felt like crying; you didn't know how much you missed it here.

She showed you to the bedroom. You thought of all the people who'd slept here and how most of them were you. The bed was soft as ever and you slept a long time. When you finally woke, you didn't leave the bed for hours. You stared up at the ceiling and wondered if you should stay with her this time. You had before; in many lives you refused to leave the ruins. It was nice for a while, but Flowey always came for you. You could leave the ruins, but you dreaded the thought of going through it all again. The same pointless story. You knew every ending and they always came back here. You could barely remember your life from back before you were trapped in this… this… loop. There'd been many times when you'd made it to the surface and had no idea where to go. You didn't remember where you lived. Who your human family was. Why did you even go up that mountain in the first place?

You let out a frustrated sigh and kicked off the blankets, suddenly uncomfortable and hot. Every question you asked, you asked a million times before. It angered you that you always came back to the same stupid problems. No matter what you did, you could never progress. The solution was never any clearer. All of your options had been exhausted; you've played along with this stupid game kindly, cruelly, and everything in between. And something about the last life you lived made you so tired. You struggled to understand how you felt… and it slowly became clear. That should've been the end.

You sat up quickly and stared at the walls. That should've been the end. That wasn't just any death, it was a real death. A good death, even. You looked at your hands and saw that they were the hands of a child. But you weren't a child. You were... old. You had found an ending you could grow old in. How? Did you make it to the surface? Did you stay here? Did you kill anyone? You couldn't remember… what did you do?

You would have to leave the ruins. You knew the only way to remember some things was through re-experiencing them. Not all the dots stay connected in your head; some things are forgotten. But when you come across certain events or places, your memory gets jogged and you remember past choices. You just hoped you wouldn't confuse timelines.

You got out of bed and almost stepped in the piece of pie. Oh yeah; there's something you'd somehow forgotten. In many lives, you never even ate the pie. This time, you decided to start on it right away. You took the plate out of the room with you, eating as you wandered the house. Nothing was really different; Toriel's socks, the locked bedroom, your face in the mirror (it had once been Chara's).

You began your argument with Toriel once the pie was finished. That went as always. In past lives you did everything you could to get her to come with you, but she never did. You were always forced to separate. When the fight was over, she gave you one last embrace. You allowed yourself to hug her back and take a moment to just… enjoy it. You would really miss her.

Before you could really leave the ruins, Flowey was there. There were several moments of silence, but finally he spoke. "You've done this before, haven't you?" You nodded. "I feel like… I have, too." The flower was troubled. "I'm so… tired." You both looked at each other. For the first time in this life, you spoke.

"It's going to be okay, Asriel. I will help you. Maybe this time we can find a real ending." Even now, you still loved him. But his tragedy exhausted you. The flower, not knowing how to respond, decided to simply vanish into the ground. That was fine by you.

You stepped through the doors and then it was winter.

So I've decided to try my hand at an Undertale fic! Not totally sure how I want it to go, but we'll see! Not much plot happened so far, just Frisk going through the motions of the game and figuring stuff out.

Edit: fixed some typos and formatting errors. I want to point out that Frisk's memory is kind of going in and out-as in, they remember more at some points and less at others. Frisk's past lives are remembered like dreams; so very inconsistent. But general feelings and moments that stand out are remembered. I'm worried about what I'm going to do in future chapters, especially since I want Sans to be a big part of the story. I really like the mood I have set, but I have a feeling I won't be able to keep it for long-maybe that's a good thing, though.