This is the end. Or at least, that's what I had thought.

Now through a sudden change of heart, Gaster rises above the ground and the cracks in the sky seal. Everyone looks to him as the chaos of the room ceases, and the light he had stolen from Asriel fades from his hand. He falls several meters and lands on the ground.

Sans runs towards Gaster as he lies on the ground, weak and shaking. "it's okay," he says quickly. "it's okay, i'm here… i'll help you, don't worry," he says. His older brother looks up at him, though his appearance is a bit different now, probably looking almost exactly as he had in life, the swirling darkness gone from his form. His eyes focus a little and he frowns, the cracks in his skull becoming more obvious. He raises a hand slightly and makes a few signals with it. Sans watches for a moment then shakes his head. "no. no, w.d. you'll be fine. i promise, you'll be fine. come on, the barrier is down and everything… we can leave this place. you can see the sun." Gaster smiles a little, then laughs weakly. "yeah… that's right, now come on."

Gaster looks at him and shakes his head. "Go on… go with the others. I'll remain here."

Sans frowns sadly. "look, everything that happened… it doesn't matter, you did the right thing in the end, w.d. i'll make sure no one holds it against you if that's what you're worried about."

Gaster shakes his head. "I've been dead… For a long time, Sans. Neither determination, nor the powers of time or space can change that." He coughs, holding his ribcage. "This is as far as I can go…"

"then what's going to happen to you?" Sans asks.

"I'll stay here…" Gaster says. "And with the power I took from you, and the determination I took from the fallen child…. I'll ensure that time remains whole…" Sans frowns, but Gaster smiles weakly. "In a way… that's what I've been trying to do anyway."

"but you... i've been trying to find you this whole time and..."

Gaster shakes his head interupting him. "You have others you need to look after, Sans... I know it's been hard for you. But you'll have to keep going."

"why does this have to happen now…?" Sans asks. "you… you finally did what you wanted… your dream… your vision. you took down the barrier, you did it, w.d."

"I know," Gaster says. "And so does everyone else. They'll… remember…me."

"you think?" Sans asks.

"I know they will," Gaster replies. "Look at Papyrus, look at Alphys." Sans does so, and a degree of recognition is in both of their eyes. "This whole time," Gaster continues, "I've been so alone... but knowing that the world went on without me was painful. I've wanted… at least one other person to think I… made a difference…"

"well you made a huge difference," Sans says.

Gaster smiles. "Thank you…" With those words said, he closes his eyes in concentration, apparently maintaining the timeline with the slight red and blue magic swirling around him.

Sans steps away quietly, and doesn't say anytning to anyone for a long while, contemplating what Gaster said in silence. After a while he sighs, looking to the others. Papyrus goes to him, and puts a hand on his shoulder. "so…" Sans says quietly. "now we cross the barrier?"

Yes. *No.

Sans looks over to Frisk in surprise. "why, what's wrong?"

"FLOWEY, OR… ASRIEL, I GUESS. HE DISAPPEARED," Papyrus explains.

"well… can't leave that guy behind, now can we?" Sans asks Frisks. They shake their head and Sans manages a small smile. "know where he is, kid?"

In a small chamber, at the furthest reaches of the ruins, Asriel sits in a patch of flowers no longer glowing and looking much like he had before his first trip out of the underworld. He looks up, high above, at the single beam of light, shining down from the human world. Well… it wasn't just the humans' world anymore, now was it?

He plays with a flower quietly, running a thumb over the petals. "I… wanted to talk to you one more time, since I guess… without all that determination, you can't do much here, anymore," Asriel says quietly. "Huh, Chara? No more resetting?"

He's talking to me… Has he gone crazy with all that magic? Well… I don't have anything better to do than listen, though I hope he's ready for a one way conversation.

"Gosh… what a wild ride, huh?" Asriel asks. "So… was all that worth it? I think you might've had more fun if you'd just done like I said, played with me a few times, right?" He's quiet for a moment, as though expecting me to respond. "Well… I guess I never really knew what was going on in your head, Chara. …I think I'll… miss you though. Is that weird? After everything you did?" He looks down a little. "Will you miss me too?" he asks quietly. After a few moments he laughs a little to himself. "…Sorry, I guess it doesn't really matter."

He looks at a spot at the center, where Frisk fell and where I first took control of them. "So… are you going to go with them? I guess you probably have to. Maybe that's a good thing… having someone watching over them, you know? You can't be mean to them anymore at least." He looks at an empty spot in the flower patch and puts a paw over his heart. "I think… I have a soul somehow. But maybe I can just…"

His form shifts back to Flowey's and he stands a little taller than the rest in the little flower patch. "There… I guess I probably belong right here… right back to where this started. Heh… no more new visitors though." There is silence around him. "Gosh… I… guess I'll have to get used to that." He's silent for a long time, until he hears the sound of footsteps approaching and looks up.

Through a doorway, Frisk stands, looking at him. "Oh no," he says quietly. "You're… back. Again. Why do you always come back?" Frisk goes to him and pokes him. "Ow… why?"

You're a flower again? *That's not a good look for you.

He looks down. "Yeah, maybe not." He shifts back to his form from before his death and stands. "You… should probably get going, Frisk. I bet everyone is waiting for you." Frisk shakes their head. Asriel smiles sadly. "Look… I know why you're here, you did the same thing last time, but… hey someone needs to take care of these flowers, right?"

Yes. *No.

He tilts his head a little. "No? …Frisk, look, I can't go back. You can though, that's what you wanted all along, right? Why… why should I go back?"

"well your folks are going to miss you, for one thing," Sans says, leaning on the doorway. "and anyone who'd upset someone with such a wonderfully awful sense of humor as your mom needs a little push in the right direction."

Asriel looks over to him. "Oh… You brought Sans," he says a little flatly. Frisk nods.

Sans smiles. "hey kid, I know you might be upset about nearly causing an apocalypse but you really shouldn't worry, it wasn't the end of the world." Frisk rolls their eyes and shakes their head. "what?" Sans asks. "too soon?"

Asriel sighs. "You don't need to bother, I'm not worried about that, everything turned out okay anyway."

"well what are you still doing here then?" Sans asks. "you've got a soul now and everything, right?"

Asriel looks spooked for a moment that Sans knows, then realizes he must have seen it when he nearly died. "It's… it's complicated, and I don't want to talk to you about it, okay?"

"WELL CAN YOU TALK TO ME ABOUT IT?" Papyrus asks, running in. "GEEZ, SANS, YOU'RE ALREADY HERE? SOMEONE AS SHORT AS YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T BE SO FAST."

"well, see," he starts to reply, reaching into his hoodie.

"SANS, DON'T YOU DARE."

He holds out a red bottle. "i really like to 'ketchup'," Sans says with a wink.

*Terrible. Haha.

"UGH," Papyrus agrees before turning to Asriel, "DO NOT WORRY, LITTLE ASRIEL, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM ACTUALLY A GREAT MOTIVATOR. YOU JUST NEED TO PICK YOURSELF UP AND COME WITH US NOW."

Asriel shakes his head. "No… no thanks… there's nothing there for me anyway."

"That's no attitude to have, daisy!" Undyne shouts as she rushes in. "C'mon, you've got a whole surface to see! Anyway, your dad is upset you decided to run off so I'm here to drag your sorry butt back whether you want to go or not!"

Asriel looks at her. "You can try."

"Why, we gonna have another fight?" Undyne asks with a competitive look before grinning widely. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But seriously kid, you should come with us."

"Look, I know all of you mean well, but…" Asriel starts, but ends up trailing off. "Look, none of you would understand, I can't go back after everything I did…"

"I uh… I… Understand th- that… Asriel," Alphys says, meekly standing in the doorway still. "I mean um… um… the whole… g- guilt thing. I get it. It's… hard to believe anyone could ever forgive you for things you've done but… take it from me, hiding doesn't… you know… solve anything."

Asriel frowns a little. "I didn't think you'd show up…"

"Y- yeah, I'm not surprised," Alphys says. "But I kind of owe you f- for the whole uh… DETERMINATION… experiment… stuff. So… are you sure you can't come with us?" She walks into the room and joins the others.

Asriel looks at all of them. "You're all wasting your time. I don't deserve to go back… I didn't even manage to help anything this time around…"

"THAT ISN'T TRUE!" Papyrus says. "YOU SAVED MY LIFE, THAT'S SOMETHING!"

Alphys taps her fingers together. "A- and you uh… kind of forced me to come clean with everything, and I think that's… uh… helped me a little, so… there's that…"

"And you aren't really anywhere near how annoying I said you were!" Undyne adds.

"Gee, thanks," Asriel says.

Undyne grins in response. "Lighten up! But seriously, you've worked harder to make things right than anyone! Everything you did took some serious guts, and I can respect that."

"anyway, you really aren't as bad as you think you are," Sans says. "so you did some weird stuff as a flower, who cares? you can't let that o-posy your progress now."

Asriel tries not to but he ends up cracking a smile anyway.

"heh, i've always says there has to be something good about people who genuinely enjoy bad jokes," Sans says with a wink.

"WELL WHAT ABOUT ME THEN?" Papyrus asks.

"no one's perfect, bro."

"So, you coming, tulip?" Undyne asks.

Asriel frowns. "I… I just…"

"Asriel," a gentle voice says. Asriel jumps and looks up as Toriel walks through the door. "…My child… Will you please come back with us? …I've missed you, you know."

"Mom…" Asriel says quietly.

"She isn't the only one," Asgore says, walking in. "Son… please come back."

Asriel blinks away tears as he looks at all of them. Frisk holds his paw. He jumps a little, not having expected it and looks at them.

… *It's time to go home.

Very slowly, Asriel smiles. "Yeah… I guess it is." He takes a last look at the flower bed, and follows them back to the barrier.

And I watch all of this, without being able to do anything. So this is it… the end for me. Without my determination, I can't control Frisk. Without the disturbances in time, I can't reset. …There is one last thing I could do however. I still have the option of deleting the entire world. That, no one could take away from me. I ready myself, taking one last look at the world around me.

Although Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, Frisk, Asriel, Toriel, and Asgore all knew of what really took place to bring down the barrier, it was at Sans's request that they didn't give a full account to anyone else. As a result, W.D. Gaster was known to Monsterkind primarily as a hero. A hero not only of great intelligence, but of great determination, who had freed all of them even after being erased from memory. The treatment of him annoyed me, but it didn't surprise me. Sans had never fully given up on him after all, and through everything that happened, Gaster had remained his idol in his own mind.

With nowhere else to go, Frisk had been almost immediately adopted by Toriel. She and Asgore agreed to try to work things out for Asriel's sake as they rebuilt their lives above ground. Frisk was able to live and play alongside Asriel. Things worked out pretty well, in that sense. And through all their trials, they had grown even closer than Asriel had been with… …well… at least that's how things seemed, but there was no telling how he really felt. At least that's what I told myself.

Alphys and Undyne had started dating officially not too long after leaving the underground. Frisk found out through social media, just before Undyne had called Papyrus, and Papyrus had called them to tell them the exciting news. All three monsters, along with Sans, promised they'd be visiting frequently once Toriel and Asgore built a place that Asgore liked to call "New New Home." And a month or so later, they did just that…

"DO NOT FEAR, CHILDREN, FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE ARIVED." Papyrus goes in, cheerful as always. Frisk smiles at the sight of him. Through everything that had happened, he was still quite possibly the second best friend they had made in the underworld.

"Hey, good to see ya," Asriel says. Though it's taken him some adjusting, he seems to have been doing well out of the underworld. He seems almost like a kid again, which I suppose he is now.

Frisk looks at Papyrus, or more specifically the shirt he's wearing, with " COOLSKELETON95" logo printed in bold colors on the front. "AH, I SEE YOU HAVE SPOTTED MY ADVERTISING! IT IS FOR THE HUMAN INTERNET, I AM VERY POPULAR THERE. ESPECIALLY WITH MY COOKING VIDEOS."

"Really?" Asriel asks, sounding as though he doesn't really believe it.

"OH YES, I'M JUST A DOZEN MORE SUBSCRIBERS AWAY FROM THE… ER…" he pauses to think. "SEPTUPLE DIGITS? …IS THAT THE RIGHT WORD?"

"Wait, you mean a million!?" Asriel asks in shock.

"WHAT CAN I SAY, I HAVE STAR POTENTIAL!" he says happily. "IT'S JUST THAT NO ONE ON THE UNDERNET APPRECIATED ME."

Come to think of it, it wasn't too surprising that humans found Papyrus's… quirks interesting.

"So, how's your brother?" Asriel asks.

"OH, SANS IS GREAT. HE REALLY LIKES HIS NEW JOB TOO, HE DOESN'T EVEN FALL ASLEEP WHILE HE'S DOING IT ANY MORE," Papyrus says, then frowns a little. "THOUGH HE IS STILL TAKING SEVEN HOUR NAPS AT NIGHT. WHAT A LAZYBONES."

"Hey, sleeping's just so easy though, I can do it with my eyes closed!" Asriel says.

"AH, NO! YOU GOT THAT ONE FROM SANS AND IT'S JUST AS BAD WHEN YOU SAY IT!" Papyrus protests.

"heh, well i'm proud of him," Sans says.

? *How'd you get here?

"shortcut," Sans says. "heh… kidding, still can't do that anymore. I just took a cab." Sans looks oddly... happy, rather than just being cheerful, perhaps for the first time in a long time. It had taken him a while after everything had happened to recover, but he seems to be doing better than he had been. He looks at his brother. "hey papyrus, alphys said before I left work that she and undyne would be here soon."

"GREAT!" Papyrus replies. "I HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO SEE UNDYNE IN WEEKS, SHE'S BEEN SO BUSY!"

Asriel looks to Sans. The skeleton was once a great fear of his, but they were now almost friendly. "So you work with Alphys now?" he asks.

"yeah, sort of a multidisciplinary position relating to the scientific study of magic at this human research university," Sans replies casually. "no big deal."

*Sounds like a big deal. Cool.

"meh, it's just kind of fun. speaking of which…" he says getting a look on his face.

"OH NO…" Papyrus says, sensing the imminent pun.

"i'd tell you guys this chemistry joke… but i don't think i'd get a reaction," he says with a wink. Papyrus groans and Frisk wrinkles their nose. Asriel smiles a little, mostly at their faces.

Still terrible. Haha.

"heh, oh well," Sans says.

Not too much longer later, Asriel looks through a window as Alphys and Undyne arrive. Undyne nearly tackles Papyrus and Alphys laughs quietly at his protests until Asriel discretely pulls her aside. "S- something wrong?" she asks quietly.

"No, not really, but… did you figure out that… soul thing?" Asriel asks looking to make sure no one else is listening.

Alphys shakes her head. "Not y- yet but from what I've found, it's a little different from most souls. It's completely made of magic."

"It… won't disappear again? Will it?" he asks nervously.

"I don't think so… it seems, uh… stable. So at least there's that," she says.

Asriel nods in silence, thinking about that. He's caught off guard when Undyne goes over to him, pulling him under and arm and rubbing her knuckles on his head. "Ow! Undyne why!?" he asks.

"Heh, miss me, sunflower?" she asks with a grin.

"No!" he yells, trying to struggle free. Frisk watches and laughs a little. "Ah, Frisk, don't laugh, help!"

"Oh c'mon, all powerful Asriel can't take care of himself?" she asks, amused.

"I don't want to accidentally disintegrate you," he says threateningly. He pulls himself out of the headlock and fixes his fur. "I'm going to have to shape shift horns to get her to stop…"

"Can you do that?" Alphys asks curiously.

"The disintegrating or the shape shifting?" Asriel asks. By the look on her face, he can probably tell she means both. "Uh... yeah, but it's weird to change how I look," he admits. She looks like she's working up the courage to ask more questions when Frisk strays off into the kitchen. "Oh hey, wait up," he says, following after them.

Frisk looks at a pie Toriel is pulling out of the oven, the size of it intimidates them. I wonder if it's snails or butterscotch. Toriel sets it on the table as she smiles at the both of them. "Dinnertime is soon, you two. Asriel, would you mind getting your father?"

"Alright," Asriel says. "C'mon Frisk, I'll race ya outside!"

And I watch them run and play, I watch them gather around a table and eat dinner together, I watch all of them joke and laugh with each other… all of them like an odd family in a way. I can't help but feel a deep emptiness when seeing them so happy to be together. But I can end that… right now. No more world out of my control… no more Frisk or Asriel, no more skeletons, no more of anything…

It's their fault after all. They refused to obey me. They wouldn't play by the correct rules. It was their fault for trying to keep me from playing with them how I wanted to. So if they couldn't fulfil their only purpose, it was practically my duty to erase them. I prepare for it, almost glad to be rid of them.

I hesitate… But why? This should be so easy for me. I take another look at them, and after some deliberation, I turn my back, and I decide to just ignore them for now.

Now I wonder to myself, does this mean I lost? Sure, everyone got a happy ending again, but that wasn't at all what I was aiming for. What occurred in this timeline was not of my own volition, and in the end, the only thing I did to affect the final outcome was deny Flowey his only request if I restarted things. I suppose, in that sense, I did lose. Frisk may not have ever died, or lost a boss fight, or anything of that nature, but I still lost.

But this time there was no staying determined, and I knew however I continued to push forward, my actions wouldn't matter. I supposed at this point, my presence, my influence, my power… all those things would just be bad memories in Frisk and Asriel's minds. My old playthings might even forget me one day, and I'd be lying if I said that that thought didn't fill me with fear. And yet… after everything that happened, I know that deleting them now would just leave me with nothing but an utterly hollow victory. I just… can't do it. Not now anyway.

But maybe none of that matters. Maybe in the end, nothing that I did matters at all. Even through the deals I took, I only hastened the loss of my power. But… in a weird sense, that might almost be okay.

Because maybe… just maybe… not everything in this world is just a game that's meant to be won.