And it ended. ASRIEL was down. Frisk had won. The Barrier had been destroyed. Everyone was free. This was the happy ending. Each monster present expressed their gratitude differently. Papyrus leapt up and down cheering, practically worshipping Frisk's name. Undyne tried, and failed to suppress her gratitude, and eventually just picked Frisk up and smothered him with kisses in gratitude. Alphys seemed to simply look off into the distance, in a state that could only be described as shock. Toriel hugged the child, and held them with her for well over a minute, wordlessly. Asgore didn't know how to react, so he didn't. He just smiled. Sans' reaction was the most muted, and yet the one that meant the most. He just looked at Frisk, smiled widely, and patted him on the back.

"nice work, kid."

Getting even that slight praise from Sans meant more to Frisk than the wild reactions of all the others present, since Frisk knew full well that Sans didn't give away compliments easily.

Frisk smiled. Everyone smiled. They were all having a thoroughly good time. And then it happened.

"I hate to interrupt…"

Before any of those present had time to react, Frisk had suddenly been impaled through the chest from behind by a black tendril. Alphys literally almost had a heart attack, and Papyrus screamed in terror.

Sans' eyes went black, instantly so.

The tendril pulled back out of Frisk's body.

"HUMAN! NOOOO!"

Alphys still staggered by the entire event, managed to catch her breath enough to make an important observation.

"W-why… why haven't they RESET? Why the hell haven't they RESET!?"

"cause that bastard took their SOUL."

Toriel managed a gasp, the first breath she'd taken since she heard the voice.

"S-so… they're… dead?"

Undyne put on her game face.

"N-no… they couldn't be… not after everything that's happened…"

"don't worry. they're not dead. their SOUL is still alive inside gaster."

"W-what… did y-you say… G-g-gaster!?"

"yup."

"Indeed he did, my fellow monsters. I am disappointed in you. I have to ask- why would you be willing to befriend the inherent enemy of your entire race?"

Undyne, having no idea of who this "Gaster" was, charged.

"HE JUST FREED US ALL! HE'S SAVED ALL OF OUR LIVES! HE BROKE DOWN THE BARRIER! If a human like that is an enemy to all monsters…"

Undyne raised her spear, and prepared to thrust it at Gaster, who at this point wasn't much more than an undefined shadow.

"THEN SO AM I!"

Gaster hardly flinched. He simply lifted a hand, and Undyne was sent hurling through the air, straight back to the group that was standing there.

Sans was struggling to contain his rage. After all this time. After everything that had happened. Not only had Gaster dared to show his ugly face in this timeline, but he had done so by killing the kid. Sans wasn't going to stand for that. Again and again, he had let Chara get away with Genocide until the very end, and then, if they spared as much as one person, he just let them get away with it. He couldn't stand it. He wasn't going to let that happen again. They had just gotten their happy ending. He couldn't afford not to care anymore. And yet he knew full well that he didn't stand a ghost of a chance against Gaster with Frisk's SOUL. Hell, they were evenly matched when Gaster didn't have a human SOUL to use, with the edge going to Gaster.

He couldn't win. And so he just boiled.

"Indeed. He broke down the Barrier. You are free. This is your happy ending. So go. Leave me."

"YOU… YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED THE HUMAN! WHY!?"

"C-calm down, Papyrus! Trust me, you don't want to anger G-gaster."

"See, Alphys has the right idea. Trust the good doctor and leave."

"I-I… I… I n-never… I n… I. Never. Said. We. Should. Leave."

For the first time since ASRIEL had been defeated, Asgore spoke up.

"Agreed! If Sans here is to be believed, then the human can still be revived if you return the SOUL. Do so."

"Oh, I must apologize, great King Asgore, but I cannot allow you to have the SOUL. It is mine now. Go to the surface. Have your happy ending. And forget about the human."

Sans, up to this point, had been at the verge of transforming into his battle mode and simply trying his best to straight-up kill Gaster, but he knew he couldn't. A single tear fell down his bony cheek as his pupils slowly returned.

"it's not worth it… it's either just him… or all of us."

"YOU'RE SUGGESTING WE GIVE UP, SANS? JUST LIKE YOU TO DO SOMETHING SO LAZY!"

"i'm not saying we should give up, pap. i'm saying we should live. it's a lost cause. alphys, be the voice of reason here. let's just get out."

Toriel's rage had been boiling up to this point, actually blocking out her grief.

"SANS! When I talked to you so many times through the Barrier, I thought you were a good person! I had begun to like you! In fact, I had begun to cherish our conversations! They were the bright point in my days, weeks, months! But now, I see what you are. All this time, you've been a coward! Now, I don't know about any of the rest of you, but I am not going to back down and let some freak take my child! Undyne! You would have died in the Hotlands had they not brought you water! Alphys! Have you ever thought of any time in your life as happy? Ever? No! Not until that human entered your life did you ever enjoy it! SANS! You owe so much to this child. So, so much! And yet you will let them be murdered, and just walk away! You are worse than Asgore! You aren't just a weakling, and a fool… you're a coward as well! I, for one, will not let this stand! Your name is Gaster, is it not? Well, I will tell you one last time! Give. Me. Back. My. Child!"

Toriel was literally aflame with rage, and… fire. A large ball of flame hovered in each of her hands as she shuddered with fury, moments from attacking Gaster with all of her power, Undyne's failure be damned.

"No, mom, please. You'll die."

In an instant, the fire was snuffed. Toriel and Asgore spun around faster than they would have if someone had told them they were about to be stabbed in the back. They knew that voice. They always had. They would never forget. That was the voice of Asriel Dreemur. Not ASRIEL. Asriel. Their child.

He stood there, quite awkwardly, to say the least. He didn't know quite what to say, or do. He knew he only had a few more hours, perhaps even minutes, before he became Flowey again. He didn't want to force Toriel and Asgore to see that happen to him… again. But he couldn't stand by and watch as Gaster killed them all. When he was ASRIEL, the absolute GOD of HYPERDEATH, he had seen everything. He knew almost everything. And, unlike almost everyone else in the universe, he could see W. D. Gaster. He could feel him. And, even as ASRIEL, he feared him. Perhaps this was just the natural fear of a child from ghosts, from haunts, from spooks. But ASRIEL didn't think so. He thought that it was a legitimate fear, and while it was true that Gaster posed no threat to ASRIEL, he did pose a threat to Asriel, and he posed a threat to all of the other people there.

And, strangely, the thing that most compelled him to ACT, to SAVE them… wasn't a desire to save his parents. It was a desire to save Frisk. That was a strange thing, when you think about it. He had only known the human for less than 45 minutes, and he had been trying to kill him for 90% of the time. But Frisk, in the seven weeks they had been in the Underground, had done more to help monster-kind than all the other monsters that had ever lived- combined. And Asriel didn't want to see them die. Not from a cheap shot like that.

"ASRIEL!"

Both Toriel and Asgore charged Asriel wildly, nearly leaping at him and grabbing them into their arms, before both of them fell silent and simply sobbed uncontrollably.

"Hi mom. Hi dad. It's good to see you. It's uh… been a while."

Neither of the Underground's royal family paid much attention. Nor did they pay attention to the rather annoyed W. D. Gaster.

"Asriel is alive? How did that happen?"

"the kid works miracles, gaster."

"B-but… I never saw it…"

"neither did i, and you and i both know how much i can see."

"Yes, but I'm on a completely different leve- NO! I will not stand for this! Leave now, or be destroyed!"

"Oh. Gaster sounds angry. Mom, dad, please, listen to me for a second. HEY! You guys listen up too! You can't beat Gaster, apart, together or any other way."

Toriel and Asgore didn't know quite how to react to this.

"But you can win! You just need a little… push."

"W-what does that mean, child?"

"Duh! It means you need these."

Asriel held out his hands. Sans smiled.

In those hands, those little, child's hands, lay the six most important objects in the universe.

Asriel was holding the SOULS.