The trio gripped hands as they walked together into the light, the power of their combined RESET overwhelming even the darkness of the entire Underground.

Chapter 12: An Ending(s)

Undyne awoke in her own bed. Taking a minute to stretch her aching limbs she thought about the strange dream she'd had last night. Wow, that had been a complicated doozy. Good thing it hadn't actually happened or else she'd have a lot of things to worry about. Not that she worried about much, being Undyne and all but still. She was unnerved.

Taking a glance at the picture of Alphys sitting by her bed she sighed, hit with a pang of grief. She shook it off.

She'd gotten over it a long time ago.

The fish monster got ready in a hurry, brushing her tangled hair, throwing her armor on and heading out the door.

Papyrus was waiting for her outside. The two saluted and Undyne relaxed, the sight of her old friend calming her for some reason.

"READY FOR OUR MORNING RUN, UNDYNE?" His grating voice only comforted her further. Why had it felt like she hadn't seen him in so long? She resisted the urge to pull him into a hug.

"I am. But you know what, I think I'd like to be called something else from now on. Something other than 'Undyne' that is." Whether it was something from her dream or just a whim, she was sure about her decision.

"OH? AND WHAT'S THAT?" The immensely tall skeleton looked at her in slight concern, raising a bony eyebrow.

Undyne grinned at her Captain; her sharpened, yellow teeth vicious and deadly.

"Rebel."

Undyne rolled over in bed and groaned, her head feeling like it was swimming. Her eyes snapped open as she remembered her nightmare. Sitting up, she ran her hands over her arms, making sure they were solid and not turning to dust. Then she lifted up her pink anime catgirl nightshirt and placed a trembling hand on her abdomen, taking comfort in not feeling magical blood dripping down from a stab wound that wasn't there. Her breaths came out in short gasps and she was shaking all over. She collapsed back down on the bed and looked up at the same ceiling she'd stared at for so long she'd memorized every tile, every line in the lab she slept in back when she'd been so guilt-ridden over what she'd done to those monsters downstairs that sleep wouldn't come for hours.

The young scientist had never gotten used to the usual nightmares but this one had unnerved her in a vastly different way.

Eventually she started to come down from her panic attack with every deep breath she forced herself to take.

She hadn't been speared by a monster who looked like her but much more frightening. She was still alive, she'd never left this bed at all in fact. Dr. Undyne just had to keep telling herself that.

After a few minutes, she was feeling better enough to get out of bed. She immediately regretted it as she was faced with everything she knew she had to deal with today, same as every day. The lies, the secrets, the feelings of utter worthlessness and inadequacy. It was almost enough to make her crawl right back into bed, pull the covers up and essentially reject the day.

But she'd done it yesterday, the day before and the day before that for years. She'd do it today and she'd do it again tomorrow. No one could ever find out how low she'd gotten, especially not Captain Alphys. She wouldn't let it happen.

Grabbing her pristine white lab coat, she threw it on and headed downstairs, the same fake smile plastered in place, the same one she'd had on every day for so long she couldn't remember when it hadn't been necessary. It gave her just enough strength to get by.

At least for today.

"UNDYNE!" Undyne jerked awake as the front doors to the lab slid open and a loud shout reverberated around the room.

The monster scrambled out of bed, hurriedly running a hand through her unkempt hair that was out of her usual bun and throwing on a bloodied, dirtied lab coat that had used to be white to cover up her ratty old, over-sized gray pajamas. It was hard to find good clothes in a world like this.

She felt a strange wave of jealousy, though for what she had no idea. For another way of life? She'd never known any other way besides this one.

Right?

"UNDYNE!" The skinny scientist moved faster as the familiar voice shouted again, louder this time.

"I-I'm coming!" She called out nervously as she ran down the broken escalator stairs, taking them two at a time.

"It's about time!" Captain Alphys hefted her enormous battle ax onto her shoulder, her one eye that wasn't covered in a nasty scar looking over the other monster carefully. "You sleep way too much, it's not good for you. Cut back on it."

"Y-yes m-ma'am." Undyne stuttered, glancing away. She was used to obeying orders from the hardened soldier.

"And stop stuttering, it's damn annoying." Undyne just nodded this time, not trusting her own voice. Alphys' hard gaze softened as she really looked at her friend. At the darkness behind her eyes that was...different than usual, and the way she looked like her mind was a million miles away. "You alright?"

"It's nothing," Undyne replied, much quieter than usual so she wouldn't stumble over the words.

"Undyne," Alphys set her weapon down and came over to her, setting her hands equipped with battle claws made just for her on her shoulders. "You can tell me anything. You know I only tell you to do these things for your own good, right?" Undyne nodded quickly in understanding.

Staring into her friend's one good eye, the weary scientist wanted to spill everything. The nightmares, the fear of death, the feeling that she was making all the wrong choices in life. The guilt over all the pain she'd purposefully caused to so many others.

But who here didn't struggle with those kind of things? She had too for so long.

Except today it felt different, like it had been amplified by 100 times. Why? What was so different about today that made her feel like wanting to break down, more so than yesterday? Or any other day in all the years she'd grown up and lived in this hellhole of a world?

Unable to find the right words her shoulders began to shake with overflowing emotion. Alphys frowned, clearly in discomfort but not pulling away. Instead she guided the fish monster to put her forehead against her. Due to the height difference she had to bend over a bit but she sighed into the lizard monster's shoulder, not letting herself sob but unable to stop a few tears from falling down.

"I-I..." She stopped, starting over and talking much slower so she wouldn't trip over the words. "I...wish things...were different." It was all she could say really. All that could be said that would sum up everything she was feeling.

Alphys bit her lip, awkwardly massaging the other's back. She knew all too well about those kind of feelings.

"I know, I know. But things will change soon, I know it. You just gotta believe, okay?" Undyne let out a shaky breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Okay."

Queen Undyne had already been up for hours. One didn't get to be ruler by sleeping in all morning after all.

But usually when she'd be ordering everyone else around, even throwing a few black spears at a few heads, this morning she was quiet. Contemplative. She hadn't felt like this in a long while. She kept recalling her past life, back before the human had fallen and left them to rot and go mad with grief and hunger.

Back when everyone hadn't been happy but instead full of hope, before that hope had been cruelly snatched away by an eight year old.

While her world was still the same as it had been the day previously for years, for the first time the leader felt the need to try and make it as it had been before. That hope she thought she'd lost was trying to cling to her cracked, shivering soul.

The Queen decided then and there to bring that same hope back to her people. It wouldn't be easy, not at all. In fact it would be one of the hardest things she'd ever have to do. But the daunting challenge didn't make her want to back down in the slightest. If anything, she was filled with Determination.

Her first step was calling in all her servants and having them gather up any and all seeds left in the Underground. As scarce as they were there were still a few that were brought in. A few was all she needed. Some rabbit monsters with growth magic could easily provide them all with enough food to feed everybody in a few weeks. The cannibalism could end and monsters could start helping each other again. And if they didn't, they'd meet the pointy end of one of her spears.

Their leader had just been too drunk with power and malicious intent to see everything she'd been doing wrong.

All this time she could have been helping her fellow monster, rather than declare war on the children who fell down here few and far between.

It would take a while and a lot of hard work to fix everything but she was confident she could do it. After all, she was Undyne.

There wasn't anything she couldn't do.

"The anomaly has been neutralized."

Undyne awoke in her bed so hard her back arched up involuntarily and she let out a loud gasp, her head spinning.

Throwing the covers off she stumbled out of bed, the sensation of having only half her vision again nearly making her collapse.

There were other sensations too. With a single glance she noticed she was taller again, her skin was colored a bright blue and the ear fins on the side of her head twitched as emotions ran through her head.

Her soul felt different too. She didn't have to look to know that it was white once again and the tip pointing upward rather than the other (human) way around. It beat in a steady pulse that greatly reminded her of what it had felt like to be...to be human.

But she wasn't human anymore. She was once again a monster. She felt like she could jump for joy and yell at the top of her lungs.

But...when was she? How far back had she gone? The massive power of the RESET could have dumped her anywhere. And what had happened to Frisk and Chara?

Blinking her single eye wearily she dressed quickly in a simple jean and tank top combo before collapsing down into the same old rickety chair in front of her computer. Knowing the year helped (same as before) but the exact date didn't. She hadn't bothered to look at a calendar the whole time she'd been human and didn't have a inkling to what day it had been before she (died) became human.

The now fish monster scrolled through Undernet for a few minutes trying to look for more clues but soon deemed it worthless. Alphys and Papyrus posted the same stuff every day and everyone else hardly posted anything at all.

She gave a start as her phone vibrated on the desk near her. Glancing at the screen she saw it was a text.

guess things are back to normal, ey fish sticks?

She didn't need to be the royal scientist to know who that was from. The fact that Sans remembered everything didn't surprise her in the slightest. What did was the fact that she did too. There had been many previous resets before the last one apparently and she hadn't remembered before, so why now?

Maybe the extra Determination that had been in her system had bled over, changing her physiology, even after it had been removed. Dear Asgore, what if she remembered every reset now? She'd go mad in no time, just like Queen, even if their circumstances were vastly different.

No. She wouldn't allow that. She'd take Frisk and shake them endlessly until sense was knocked into them, no matter how young they were. They had no right to play with all of them like pieces of a chess game without paying any consequences.

Undyne shook her head, clearing all those thoughts away. That was to be worried over at another time.

So instead Undyne grabbed her phone again and sent off a quick reply to the text she'd gotten earlier. Normally she would have ignored it but the stout skeleton had been an immense help getting everything back to normal. Plus, he was probably curious to know if she remembered everything too. Not that it was any of his damn business but she didn't care if he knew. Not anymore.

Guess so bonehead.

Yeah, it wasn't her best comeback but she'd think of a better one later. But the action did remind her that, no matter what day it was, she had duties to perform.

Except, another glance at the calendar told her it was her day off. Damn. If she didn't do something normal right now she'd go mad, being left alone with her thoughts over everything that had happened was not an option.

But...the last time she had worked on her day off Asgore had found out and nearly flipped his wig. He was very particularly about his royal guards taking it easy when they had to, both for their overall health and concern as a friend. (Asgore was friends with everybody, big surprise there).

Hmm...what to do then? What was it she usually did on her days off?

Cleaned, trained, both alone and with Papyrus (was he coming over today? He usually came over every day so probably so), played the piano, hung out with Alphys, practiced her cooking skills...

Well, this place had gotten pretty messy lately and she had missed playing the piano after so long...

The hours went by pretty fast, and Undyne was feeling more and more like herself with each passing minute. She'd never be the same as she had been before though, she'd learned too much, been through too much.

She'd even taken the time to send Alphys a cute picture and ask how she was doing.

(She got a Mew Mew Kissie Cutie meme in return. Good to see things were back to normal.)

The Captain of the Guard had just sat down and had been playing the piano for about thirty seconds when there was a knock at her door. Suppressing a groan but not a roll of the eye she moved to the door quickly. It was most likely Papyrus, it was around the right time for his training after all.

At seeing her old friend she reached out and trapped him in a fierce bear hug. She was so glad he was okay. The lanky skeleton seemed surprised but was never one to turn down a hug, which he returned eagerly. She set him down and he let out an 'oof' from the sudden drop. Undyne gave him a toothy grin.

"Hi Papyrus! Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?"

"YOU BET I AM! AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND!" Wait a minute...

Undyne suddenly remembered what day it was.

She stiffened immediately as she saw Frisk hiding behind Papyrus. As soon as the skeleton moved to the side they stared at her with intense, earnest, apologetic eyes. As if they were holding out the proverbial hand of mutual agreement.

Her first instinct was to throw a spear right at their soul but the way they were looking at her reminded her so much of standing in the Judgment Hall where they promised things would be different, where Undyne had taken their hand and stepped into the light.

They had one chance. One chance to make everything right, to free them all and never reset again.

"Why don't. You two. Come in?"

A year later there was a knock on the door of her house on the Surface. Opening it up, Undyne saw it was Sans with a goofy grin on his face, his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on his heels.

"What do you want Skelepun?" (Her replies had gotten better over time). He laughed at the name approvingly.

"i finished it." He said in that frustratingly vague way he tended to speak in.

"Finished what?" She growled, but with no real heat behind it.

"i call it the 'dimension hopper'." His grin grew even bigger, if that were possible.

"The wha-" but before she had a chance to really ask he continued.

"wanna go see them again? make sure they're doing alright?" Instantly she knew who he was referring to. There wasn't a second's hesitation before she answered.

She wasn't sure if they would remember her or not but maybe if they didn't that would be a good thing. Maybe this was a chance to start over.

Maybe this was a chance to help some of those Undynes she'd met who were hurting and help them fix things for them for good.

"Hell yes!"

*END*

A great big thank you to everyone who supported me and this fic! Expect to see more Undertale stuff from me, particularly another Undyne fic (although much more domestic hah) and maybe an Underfell fic eventually, but we'll see ^^

In fact if anybody wants I could do some one shots set in this AU, such as maybe all the Undynes living together or go back and explain how Queen and ErrorDyne landed in their universe in the first place, let me know!

~Mango