At the End of Time

I don't know how, but somehow I managed to become Undertale trash without even playing the game myself.

Bloody hell.

So, yeah, story. Enjoy and stuff. Bleh.

This was it.

After countless tries, innumerable deaths, a plethora of words beyond comprehension, he was finally here.

Frisk couldn't move for a moment, almost unable to fathom that they'd done it.

W. D. Gaster, in the flesh.

The two of them stood, facing one another in a dimensionless room. The laws of space and time had been temporarily transcended here, casting incomprehensible patterns and unreal shapes over the infinite expanses of the walls. Frisk feared madness would come to them if they looked upon the insane images, and so kept their eyes firmly on the ex-Royal Scientist.

He stood there, a rueful smile etched onto his masklike, porcelain face, two dark cracks crossing his features and trailing away into the hunched, black expanse of his body.

"Young one..." His mouth did not move. His voice was not a sound, but an impression of sound, something that pushed into the world of the senses from outside, leaving merely a vague imprint to bely it's true nature. "You seem to have gone to a great deal of trouble to arrange this meeting..."

"Yes." Frisk managed to choke out. It had been hell. Utter, utter hell. Determination aside, it had taken far more than that to get here.

"No doubt..." The scientist's form stretched upwards, as if standing up straight, face still immovable. "So, why?"

"I need your help."

"Oh? And what makes you think I can be of any assistance at all?"

"Because you can see."

"...You wish me to tell you the future? I am afraid I cannot, child. Forces far greater than I shape the world in unfathomable ways. One such force is yourself."

"I don't want to know the future. I know the future. I just want to know whether a certain future can exist." The figure of Gaster leaned in uncomfortably close, towering over Frisk. He paused.

"...I think first, you should tell me what you want. At first, when I saw you enter the world of the underground, bringing fresh Determination with you, enough to tear the power of RESET from its previous master, I saw an innocent youth who wanted nothing but to help our trapped, wretched selves..." He turned his head away, smile and eyes unmoving. "...But now I am unsure. More times than I can count, I have watched you butcher and rebuild this world, killing some, all, or even but one. You strike down innocent after innocent, only to resurrect and befriend them once more. Then, you may strike them down again." He looked back to Frisk, now with two tiny diamonds glittering in the abyss of his sockets. "I ask of you... Why?"

"Desperation and corruption."

"Oh? Go on."

"My will is not entirely my own. Now, not even my own soul belongs to me..."

"Such nuances have eluded my sight. Please, do continue."

"Since I first fell, the spirit of the first fallen child has lived within me, pushing me to take lives. Every lifetime was a struggle for control. Sometimes I won, and no one is killed. Sometimes I lost... And they killed everyone. Now, my soul is theirs, traded for a RESET, a fresh chance."

"But why allow them the opportunity? You had paradise in your grasp only the second time..."

"Paradise for all but one person."

"Ah. I see. You wish to save Asriel Dreemurr."

"I did. I tried so many times. I searched and searched for a way to heal him, but I could not find one. Eventually, my methods became... Desperate."

"You killed."

"Yes."

"And it gave the first child the opportunity it had been waiting for."

"Yes."

"And then?"

"We killed the world, and brought it back. I fought for dominance, and drew even. Some lived, some died. We did this over and over, until I thought I had won. Then, they simply tore it away again."

"And so you continued to fight."

"Yes. That is... Until I found you."

"Hmm?"

"We found... Someone, someone who had never been there before. They only existed in that exact timeline. They told us about you. Your invention, the accident that removed you, and them, from existence."

"..."

"Then we found another. And another. Both in extremely specific timelines. One wrong step, one misplaced foot, and they were gone. I looked for them. I found them. I homed in on you."

"And now you have found me. But in doing so, you killed of your own volition."

"I don't know if the two of us are even separate any more. They have my soul, and I have blood on my hands. But I did it all for this moment. I want you to tell me... How to fix it all. How I get a happy ending for everyone. You, me, Asriel, the monsters, humanity, and even Chara." Gaster leant back, shrinking back into himself.

"You ask much of me, human. You want me to look into infinity, and find a single, pinprick future."

"I'm asking because I want it to happen, with all my heart."

"...Very well."

Gaster's twin points of light faded away as he looked beyond. He stood for nearly an eternity.

"I cannot tell you how..." Frisk jumped at his voice, trembling with anticipation. "But it is possible. There is a way to save Dreemurr, the monsters, humanity, and even yourself, but there shall be no rest for Chara. Theirs is a hunger unending."

"...Thank you so much, Mr. Gaster."

"It was my pleasure, Frisk."

"I- Ungh!"

"What-?"

"Chara is coming. She wants to kill you..." Gaster's fixed eyes widened. He was not safe in this strange realm. Here, his existence could very well end. "But don't worry..."

Frisk staggered backwards, doubled over, clutching their belly in pain.

"...You've given me all the determination I could ever need to beat them."