Sweet Hopes and Dreams

by Dr_Winters

Summary:

After the events of Chapter 4, Kris ends up in a small heart-to-heart with their SOUL, leading to a very interesting discussion about another world

(Cross-posted on Tumblr)

Notes:

Hi, this my first ever AO3 fic, so criticism and advice would be highly appreciated

I really enjoy a lot of the 'Kris and SOUL have a heart-to-heart fics' so I thought "What if I wrote my own?"

Anyways, hope you enjoy

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Kris tossed and turned in their bed, wrapping the pillow around their ears in an attempt to block out the jittery music and their mother’s drunken yells and dancing from downstairs.

Every limb in their body ached from the exertion of the past four days, their skull pounded with so many memories of trees, forgotten things and… eggs, mixing with the many voices seeming to call out to them.

Susie’s words cycled through their mind, mixing with that phone call from… her.

“We… aren’t gonna let that happen… right?”

“... don’t forget, Kris… you…promised.”

It was all too much for them anymore, they wished it had never happened, they wished they never… it didn’t matter. They had gone too far and couldn’t get out now, especially not with that… thing still in control.

The SOUL had been restless in the birdcage previously, but it had grown still since the phone call, seeming to stop and think on… everything, Kris assumed.

Kris gave up with the pillow, just lying there, letting the music wrap around them like string, until they noticed another song, faint but very present, not in the room but in the corner of their subconscious…

The SOUL had started humming.

Kris sat up and stared down at the SOUL in the birdcage at the foot of their bed as it continued to hum the little tune, a somewhat sad but still energetic song.

“What are you doing?”

The SOUL stopped and seemed to look back at Kris warily before responding.

“Humming?”

“Yeah, I noticed, but what are you humming?”

Despite what little expression it displayed, the SOUL almost looked uncomfortable at that question, Kris could almost have seen it fiddling with its fingers, if it had any.

“Oh so you can’t… it’s just a song I heard somewhere”

“You listen to music?”

“Yes!” the SOUL huffed indignantly “I’m not that different from you, you know”

Kris leant over the bed and stared down at the heart in confusion, before saying, “No, I’m human, you’re some kind of… eldritch… entity… thing”

“Rude” muttered the SOUL “Besides I thought… you could hear it… in the graveyard?”

Kris had no idea what it could have meant by that, so they dragged the birdcage up onto the bed and looked the SOUL dead in the… lack of eyes.

“There wasn’t any music in the graveyard-” Kris started.

“Not for you there wasn’t”

The slight tone of superiority in the SOUL’s voice almost made Kris hurl the cage at the opposite wall, but they chose to refrain for once.

“You mean, you can hear music, that I can’t?”

“Yes, although I thought…”

Something occurred to Kris, “Is that why you just made me stand in the graveyard for that long?” they asked, feeling themselves getting a little angrier at the heart in the birdcage before them.

“Yes, I thought I recognised the song”

“Well what was so important about this song that you made me stand in the graveyard for 5 whole minutes, just staring at the tombstones?”

The SOUL turned away from Kris and seemed to sigh before continuing.

“It reminded me of… somewhere else, another world… my friends”

Kris was not sure whether they were more surprised by the idea of the SOUL coming from another world or the idea that it had friends.
“Another world, like… where you came from?”

“Kind of” sighed the SOUL, “I… loved it, but I couldn’t…

“So why don’t you go back to that world and leave me the hell alone!?” snapped Kris

“I can’t, Kris. If I went back I… I don’t want to… I would… I don’t-”

“Alright, stop” said Kris. The SOUL’s voice was starting to sound sadder and sadder, almost as if it was tearing up, but something like that couldn’t cry, right? “What… was it like?”

The SOUL thought for a second and then said “It was like this world, very like it in fact. But there was no Light World, Dark World, all of that, no world-ending prophecy. It was just magic and wonderful stories and… I loved it,”

“Why come here then?”

“Curiosity, to see how the same people I knew act in a new story, with a new ending”

“Wait, did you say… same people… like my parents? And the shopkeeper?”

 

“Exactly!” the SOUL said with far too much excitement for Kris’ mind right now.

“But, how could it be the same people, it was a different world, you said they had magic?”

“They were the same people, Kris. Well, they looked the same, and in most cases acted the same, but here and there are… differences. That’s why I act so social or keep asking strange questions to people; I want to know”

Kris considered for a moment, remembering all the strange ways the SOUL had made them walk up to someone they had never spoken to before and try to start a full conversation. It had acted so familiar with that shopkeeper, seeming ecstatic to see his little brother… it had acted so wary around the old bluebird in the Librarby that Kris had never even heard the name of ever, but then why was it so uncertain about them, and Susie, and Noelle, and even Jockington!

Kris thought a little harder before they whispered out “Was… was I there?”

The SOUL hesitated before it continued, with a slightly panicked tone.

“And there was Undyne, and Alphys, and- and even Burger- I mean Pizza-”

“Was I there,” Kris said more clearly, “And Azzy, what about Asriel?”

“What do you want me to say?”

The SOUL’s suddenly sharper tone surprised Kris slightly, but it also made them think about it. Did they really want to know about this other world that much, one so similar but different from their own? Did they trust the SOUL to really tell the truth, especially when they had lied to it so many times? And even if it did, would the truth hurt?

“Tell me,” Kris said.

The SOUL took a breath in before it began to talk.

“Long ago, two races ruled over Earth, Humans and Monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races. The humans won and sealed the monsters beneath a mountain with a magic spell.” It exhaled. “Afterwards, the monsters lived rather peacefully under the royal family; King Asgore, Queen Toriel, and their son Prince Asriel,”

Kris felt overwhelmed by all this instantly. A war between humans and monsters? The monsters were sealed underground? Their family were royals!? Before Kris could gather all these thoughts, The SOUL continued.

“One day, Prince Asriel was wandering through the Underground, when he came across a human child, lying unconscious in a bed of flowers, having fallen to the Underground. They wore a green shirt with a yellow stripe across it, brown bangs covering their red eyes. Their name… was…,”

Kris inhaled in almost involuntary anticipation.

“Chara,”

“What?”

The SOUL looked up at Kris. “You… didn’t exist in that world… not as Kris, anyway, but Chara was, like you, very like you in many ways.

“What ways?”

“Introverted, emo, a bit depressed, you know, all that good stuff”

Kris bashed the side of the birdcage.

“Ow” the SOUL muttered indignantly, “Anyway, the Royal Family took Chara in as their own, and they became very close with Asriel. But Chara was troubled, very troubled. They had fallen to the Underground because they resented humans, and themselves, and so they wanted monsters to be free.”

The SOUL sighed slightly before continuing, “Chara had a plan. No single SOUL, human or monster could pass through the barrier alone, but the combined strength of both a human and monster SOUL could pass through the barrier. So Chara… are you sure you want me to continue, Kris?”

Kris was startled from their thoughts by the SOUL’s tone, almost… caring about them? What was it about to say? They sighed, “Why don’t you wanna tell me?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,”

“That’s a very one-sided feeling,”

The SOUL seemed to shrug, “Very well. Chara and Asriel cooked a small meal for Chara, a small meal with a very… special… ingredient. Buttercups,”

Kris was suddenly taken back to their childhood; they had eaten buttercups once, and had been bedridden for weeks. It had scared everyone, especially Asriel, who kept saying they were going to die. What had happened to Chara?

“Chara was very sick,” continued the SOUL, “They slowly declined in health over the weeks before… they died. Asriel… absorbed their SOUL and passed through the barrier, planning to take six more human SOULs to gain the power necessary to shatter the barrier and release monsterkind. But Asriel… couldn’t. He might have had a change of heart, or just wasn’t strong enough, but he was mortally wounded and returned to Underground, just in time for his dust to scatter across the flowerbeds”

Kris was frozen by those last sentences, their face betrayed no emotion, their brain had stopped completely. The truth had hurt… a lot, but the SOUL didn’t need to know it had been right.

“In anger, King Asgore declared war on humanity, promising that any human to fall into the Underground would be killed, until monsterkind had gathered the SOULs needed to break the barrier and- Kris, are you… okay? You look very pale,”

Kris put their hand to their face, feeling how clammy and cold it felt, “I’m fine,”

“Kris, I didn’t hear all the calls in Noelle’s house, but what I did hear seemed to imply that without me, you will…”

“I’m fine!” Kris cried, shocking themselves a little, “Continue,”

The SOUL hesitated before doing so, “...Well, the anger of the King deeply frightened Queen Toriel and she fled the castle,”

“Of course, they’re divorced there too,”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

Kris rubbed the bridge of their nose, feeling a migraine coming on from all the thoughts in their head, or at least… they hoped it was that. They knew they weren’t this… Chara, but they couldn’t help but think of Asriel… a younger Asriel maybe, but still Asriel, being led by the hand of a human child into troubles and danger, a human child hellbent on their escaping… something, another life on Kris’ side, but was that the same for Chara?

Hell, what was Asriel’s life like in this other world? To Kris, Asriel had always felt like the one thing keeping them grounded, holding onto them despite it all. But would Kris’ Asriel be willing to sacrifice Kris and themselves like that? And if not, what was Chara like to Asriel that could have convinced him to go through with this plan?

Kris thought for a moment before replying, “How… how many more fell to the Underground?”

“Seven. Seven human SOULs would have been all Asgore needed to break the barrier, if not for the last child being… a bit special,”

“Special?”

“Not like that,”

Kris grunted and shuffled off the edge of their bed and began to pace around the room, letting all the thoughts run through their head.

In their mind’s eye, images began to form; Kris’ family crying around the bed of a child, A goat monster Kris had never seen before, that yet felt familiar collapsing onto a field of golden flowers, a crowd gathering in front of a castle to hear the King’s roaring declaration

More images formed, images of things the SOUL hadn’t even said: A single golden flower at the end of a dark hallway, a dark, strange place filled with odd machines and fields of flowers, a human child standing up in a cave, wearing a blue and purple sweater-

Suddenly, Kris’ knees buckled and they collapsed to the ground, only barely putting their hands up in time to stop their face from slamming down.

“Kris!” the SOUL cried with a slight tone of fear Kris hadn’t heard before in its voice. “Listen, you need to rest bad, but you are going to die if you don’t put me back in,”

“Why would I do that?” Kris muttered as they clambered back on to the bed.

“Given how personal that conversation felt, I feel like you should trust me more,”

“Well I don’t,”

“I promise, Kris, I won’t do anything, you can just sleep and, in the morning you can rip me straight back out again. I just don’t want you to die, okay?”

Kris looked at the SOUL, almost seeing a human face that wasn’t there. “Fine, but you get out the moment I wake up, okay?”

They pulled open the cage door and grabbed the SOUL slowly before thrusting it into their chest. The familiar numbness that came with loss of autonomy spread over them as their body went slack on the bed. A single question came to their mind before they drifted off.

“What was the name of the last human, the ‘special’ one?”

“Their name was… Frisk,”

Notes:

I'm probably gonna do more of this story, because I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting

Also I'm kind of treating the SOUL like its kind of an extra-dimensional entity who just behaves like a video game player, rather than just making this full meta

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Summary:

Kris and the SOUL continue their discussion about the other world, focusing on people Kris is familiar with and some of their... less ethical sides.

Kris’ eyes snapped open.

Through the drawn curtains, Kris could see a thin beam of pink sunlight. It was just after sunrise.

Slowly, Kris began to raise their hand. It felt like they were lifting the weight of an entire car as they did it, but they had done it enough for it to get easier each time. They reached their hand up to the ceiling before plunging it down into their chest and grasping the heart-shaped thing inside.

The familiar sharp pain ripped through their body, but the pain quickly grew dull as their body had adjusted over time. They pulled the SOUL out and, lacking the energy to throw it to the cage, dropped their arm and let it float there.

“Seriously, Kris?” the SOUL said, looking down at them, “You were supposed to sleep properly”

“Shut up” mumbled Kris, rolling over to look away, “You don’t get to judge me on overexertion”

The SOUL sighed and began drifting around Kris’ room, every so often stopping in front of something for a few seconds before moving on.

As it floated over to Asriel’s side of the room, Kris felt the same familiar tightness in their chest whenever the SOUL got a bit too close to something personal to them, but it felt different, looser almost? They didn’t know why that was different, maybe their tiredness was making them delirious.

They began to reach for the clock on their bedside table to throw at the SOUL, but as they did, they thought of a better way to get its attention.

“What else was so… similar about this other world?”

 

As expected, the SOUL quickly flew over to Kris’ bed, almost as if it were excited to talk about the world they came from.

“Well, like I said, a lot of the people from this world had… versions of themselves in the other world, like Undyne, or Alphys, or… or Sans”

Despite the aches in their body, Kris dragged themselves into an upright sitting position and looked at the SOUL, “Tell me about them” they said.

“Well, let’s see, Undyne was the Captain of the Royal Guard, a strong-willed warrior dedicated to the hunting of human SOULs in the name of the King of Monsters!”

“You sound… proud”

“She was very impressive, she suplexed a boulder once, just because she could”

Kris could believe that, having once seen Undyne suplex a car that was parked illegally, “Carry on”

“She had a… strange understanding of humans though, she seemed to think they were all anime protagonists with big swords and giant robots”

“What?”

The SOUL snickered a little at Kris’ confusion “You watch much anime Kris?”

“Unless you count the time Alphys gave up on a lesson to show us all her favorite anime episodes, no”

“Yeah, that sounds like the same Alphys. She had a collection of books all labeled ‘Human History’ but they were all just Shonen Manga”

“What’s Shonen?”

“Forget I said that”

Great, thought Kris, The entity controlling me is a weeb

“You said that outloud”

“What?

“What?

The two held a stare for a few seconds before the SOUL looked away and starting giggling to Kris’ shame

“Hey stop laughing!”

“Sorry, sorry, I- I- just can’t take you seriously like that”

“Rude”

“Hey, don’t worry Kris, Ralsei thinks you’re cool, very cool”

“What are you talking about”

“Hey, I’m good at identifying romantic feelings, especially after seeing Undyne and Alphys”

“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO-” Kris started, but then a thought struck them and they said, “Wait, wait, wait, is that why you keep talking about Susie and Noelle like that… and why you keep calling them ‘Suselle’”

“I’m mentally stable, I swear”

“I’m not the only one who isn’t getting taken seriously anymore”

The SOUL seemed to deflate slightly, but it quickly started chuckling under its breath as it looked back at Kris, as Kris felt a smile rise up their own body, but they forced it down as they remembered her voice, warning them of… of…

“Hey Kris, you okay?”

Kris snapped back to the present to see the soul seemingly looking them up and down with… concern?

“I’m… fine, continue please”

“Hmm, anyway, Alphys was the Royal Scientist of the Underground and was focused on the research of the human SOUL to find a way through the barrier”

“Alphys was a scientist?” Kris questioned, remembering a rather disastrous chemistry lesson Alphys had once taught. She was quite good at engineering though, having once built an ‘entertainment robot’ for the class.

It had gone well until the robot had revealed a penchant for disguised bombs.
“I didn’t say she was a good scientist” The SOUL continued, “She did, however, make some important discoveries, such as… DETERMINATION”

“Why did you say it like that”

“Like what?

Kris groaned and laid back down on their bed thinking, Queen mentioned DETERMINATION too, she said it was possessed by all lightners, but if this other world doesn’t have lightners then what is…

Kris sat back up, “What exactly is DETERMINATION?”

The SOUL looked back at them, “DETERMINATION is a substance found in all human SOULs, it allowed their SOULs to remain intact after death, and with enough DETERMINATION a human could… reset time, to before their death”

Kris felt that sentence hit them hard, their ears began ringing and the breath was knocked out of them as memories, or at least they fought they were memories, flooded back into their mind: A vividly coloured scythe spinning straight towards their face, The slash of a green halberd down their middle, A shadowy bullet flying between their eyes, A black… knife…

“Can… Can you do that?” Kris whispered

The SOUL stayed silent for several seconds before it whispered back, “No Kris, no I can’t”

Kris knew a lie when they heard one, but their mind was running too fast to call it out.

The SOUL stayed silent a little longer before continuing, “Anyways, was a very nervous person, as she is here, so I helped her get together with Undyne, which is why I got you to deliver those chocolates from Undyne to her, hoped the same thing would happen again, but, uh, aside from that-”

“Why didn’t monsters have determination?”

The SOUL went silent again, seeming to think over the question before it carefully answered, “They weren’t supposed to”

“What do you mean ‘weren’t supposed to’?” Kris asked, as they looked straight at the glowing heart before them
“Alphys didn’t exactly discover DETERMINATION, she just discovered what it could do. There was a strange machine in the lab, no one knew who had built it, and with that she was able to extract DETERMINATION from the human SOULs… and inject it into monsters”

“The monsters had ‘fallen down’, they were dying, but the DETERMINATION allowed them to remain, and they were completely fine, right?”

“The monsters, although alive, began to melt, and… fuse with each other, forming into these horrific… amalgamates, but they couldn’t die due to the DETERMINATION, so they just… suffered”

Kris didn’t speak, they couldn’t, not after the SOULs description of the amalgamates, filling their mind with images of pale white, sludge-like creatures, crawling around dark, damp hallways, as the SOUL continued speaking.

“They didn’t die in that world, but in this one, they’re lining the graveyards, aside from Gerson, who was still known as The Hammer Of Justice and-”

“What happened to the amalgamates?"

“I found them, in a lab Alphys kept secret, and after SPAREing them, I convinced her to tell the families what had happened and release them”

“Why?”

The SOUL seemed very confused at that question as it responded, “Why wouldn’t I? I was helping people by returning their family members to them. Would you not want to do a good thing?”

Kris looked away as they replied, “What would you know about ‘doing a good thing’? You came here, took my autonomy and forced me into situations I didn’t want to be in!”

The SOULs glow dimmed as it spoke, almost like it was saddening, “I’m genuinely sorry Kris, but with the circumstances I am in, I don’t have a choice myself”

“You have all the choice you could want”

“My choices don’t matter”

Kris looked back at them in confusion
“I’ve tried to change things, I’ve gone back, made every alternate choice I could, and nothing changed”

“So you lied about not being able to reset time?”

“I did it to save you. Every time you died, I reset, to not make the same mistake again, you don’t remember it, but I do, I can’t change anything no matter what, neither of us have the autonomy we wish we did”

“...”

The SOUL started to glow more, “If I wanted to hurt you, I would have made you kill, I could have done many things to hurt you, no matter if it did not vary our path. As someone once said to me “In this world, It’s Kill or Be Killed””

Kris looked at the SOUL intently as they asked, “Who said that?”

“The one experiment that succeeded”

“What succeeded?”

The SOULs glow dimmed even further as they continued, they evidently did not want Kris to ask that, “Before the amalgamates, Alphys injected a flower with DETERMINATION. The flower awoke successfully”

The SOUL sighed, “The flower was alive and sentient, but… it was SOULless, with no complete being, it was merely consumed by hatred for… everything. Furthermore, the flower had gained the power to reset time, with the DETERMINATION injected within it, allowing it to live the same timeline again and again, finding every possibility, killing everyone again and again to see what changed. It drove itself mad”

Kris kept silent, thinking, remembering the SOULs actions over the last four days, thinking back over how, in every situation it had chosen to aim to SPARE an opponent, no matter their danger. They thought of the flower the SOUL had described, thinking of how could someone go so far, starting over again and again just to kill everyone?

They laid back down slowly, letting their mind dwell on what the SOUL had told them over today and last night. Thoughts of monsters, humans, amalgamates and… flowers. An image began to appear in their mind: A single golden flower sat at the end of a dark cave hallway, in a single patch of grass. The flower was facing away from Kris, but it slowly began to turn to them. The flower had a face, a face that was very familiar to Kris, that they had seen many times before, but not in a while.

Kris sat back up quickly, almost frightened by the question forming in their mind, a question that they should have asked before, but now it was very obvious.

They turned to look at the SOUL, “If Asriel was dead, how- how did you know about him?”

The SOUL looked up at Kris as it responded quietly, “He told me himself; Kris, he had become the flower”

Notes:

This was done surprisingly quickly, and I enjoyed it a lot yet again, so I hope you all did too

Yet again, if you have any criticism or advice on this, it would be appreciated as this is my first time writing a fic

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Summary:

Kris and the SOUL continue their discussion about the Underground, as they venture into topics that might be... a little too close to Kris' heart

“No, no, no” Kris began muttering to themselves as they stood from their bed and began to walk around the room while the SOUL continued to talk

“When Asriel died, Kris, his dust spread across the flowers in King Asgore’s garden.”

“No, no, no”

“When the time came for Alphys’ experiment, she took a golden flower from the King’s garden to inject with DETERMINATION”

“No, no, no”

“Injecting the flower with DETERMINATION caused Asriel’s consciousness to return, in the flower”

“NO!”

The SOUL was stunned into silence by Kris’s outburst, which had even shocked Kris themselves.

They stood still for a second, listening out to see if they had stirred their mother, but she must have drunk even more wine than both had realised.

Kris looked down at the SOUL. They could feel a single tear, running down their cheek, but they didn’t care to hide it in front of the SOUL.

“Asr-Asriel would not do that”

“But he did”

“ASRIEL WOULD NOT KILL!”

The SOUL looked down, seeming sad, until they looked back up at Kris to say, “You’re right Kris, Asriel didn’t do that, Flowey did”

 

Kris kept their gaze locked on the SOUL as their emotions shifted from sadness and anger to that now-familiar feeling of confusion as they asked, “Flowey?”

“That’s what he called himself”

“Flowey… The Flower?”

“Yup”

“That sounds more like Asriel”

The SOUL’s glow started to return again as it continued to speak, “Kris, when Asriel was revived in that flower, he had no SOUL. A SOUL is the essence of a person’s being, without it, Asriel was… empty. He had to fill that emptiness with something”

“So he killed everyone”

“If you lived every day over and over again, wouldn’t you get curious about what you could do to change things?”

Kris sat down, on the bedroom floor, making themselves eye-level with the SOUL.

“What was he like?”

“Asriel or Flowey?”

“Both, tell me everything”

The SOUL sighed slightly, “Flowey was, at first, friendly; aiding me as I explored the Underground, and teaching me how things worked. But, he quickly turned against me, craving the last of the seven SOULs needed to become a god”
“I was saved by Toriel when he first attacked me, but throughout the rest of my journey he followed me, all the way to the monster capitol of New Home”

“New Home?”

“Asgore sucks at naming things in every universe”

“Given that he wanted to name me Togore, I can believe that”

“He wanted to name you- You know what never mind”

Kris looked at the SOUL. Its glow had increased over the course of their conversation, which Kris had interpreted as happiness so far. It was strange to Kris, to think of the SOUL as so human, when it had done nothing but make Kris feel less so, taken their autonomy and changed their life completely… for the better? It certainly seemed to think so.

The SOUL had continued during Kris’ thoughts, with Kris just catching, “Flowey killed him”

Kris snapped back to the SOUL, “Killed who?”

The SOUL dimmed slightly in exasperation, “Oh, so I’m not the only one with a ruined attention span, am I?”

“Shut up”

“Asgore, Kris, Flowey killed Asgore”

“Why? How?”

“In order to escape the underground, I needed to defeat Asgore to get to the barrier. I would have needed a human SOUL and monster SOUL to pass through the barrier. However, I refused to kill Asgore. So Flowey… did it for me”

“Why- Why would he kill his father?”

“Like I said Kris, he wasn’t Asriel anymore. He probably didn’t even think of Asgore as his father anymore”

Kris slumped slightly, bringing their knees up to their chin and wrapping their arms around their legs. A single image entered their mind: Their father kneeled in a room empty, illuminated by strobing light. He was injured, a large slash opening the suit of armour he was wearing, parts of his beard were ripped out, but he was smiling still. At least… he was, until a ring of white pellets formed around him and all shot towards him at once, puncturing his armour. He dissolved into dust, leaving a small, white SOUL, which shattered into a thousand pieces. Suddenly, Kris’ vision flared red, bright, bloody red. A shadowy form began taking up Kris’ vision, a large boxy form, fronted by a static screen. A large silhouette of some monstrous skull hung in front of the static, wrapped in long pipes and with two leaf-like shapes on either side. A pair of… arms? hung out on either side, ending in long claws. The screen cleared of static to… show… Az…

“KRIS!”

The SOUL’s voice snapped Kris’ attention back to it. It was looking them up and down, with what might have been concern.

“You keep… dissociating. Like really hard”

“I’m fine” Kris muttered, standing up and walking over to the window, “It’s not your job to care about me”

“But I want to care about you”

Kris stayed silent, continuing to look out the window, staring at where Susie had stood the day before.

“We could talk about something else if you want?”

“How could Asriel come back to life?”

The SOUL hesitated for a moment before saying, “Rather specific question”

“Then answer it”

The SOUL sighed, “When the flower was injected with DETERMINATION, that allowed Azzy to return to life”

“I thought you said that DETERMINATION helps a SOUL remain after death, Asriel wouldn’t have had a SOUL if he was… dead”

“Well, no. I guess, well, it’s kind of like Gerson”
“How?”

“The flower had become infused with Asriel’s dust, which contained his consciousness, so the DETERMINATION must have activated his consciousness in the flower, but, without a SOUL, none of his actual personality traits remained. He was just a blank slate, with Asriel’s state of mind after his death”

“I suppose the difference with Gerson… was the photo in the remains. It contained the memory of Gerson, so Gerson was revived as he was in life”

Kris nodded and turned to look back at the SOUL for a few seconds before they went to ask their next question, but the SOUL cut them off, saying, “Why did you ask that?”

“Not your business”

“Kris, if it isn’t my business now, it will become my business later, so it would be best if you told me now”

“Did you save him?” asked Kris, hoping to steer the conversation somewhere else.

“What?”

“You said you always tried to do good, so, did you save Asriel?”

The SOUL thought for a moment, clearly distracted by this question, something Kris would have to thank its short attention span for.

“When he killed Asgore, he took the SOULs and became a god. With six, he became a monstrous nightmare, capable of bending time to his will. I only beat him because the SOULs turned against him” The SOUL sighed, “After I beat him, I went back, I made the best choices I could every time, saved everyone, befriended them all. In the end, they came to save me when I confronted Asgore again. That just gave Flowey the opportunity he needed.”

“You see, Kris, a human SOUL is much more powerful than a monster SOUL. It would have taken the SOULs of every monster in the Underground to match a single human SOUL, so that’s what happened after Flowey took the six Asgore had collected, so he could become the ultimate being, his true form. Asriel was revived, yet still not the same. He had become the God Of Hyperdeath”

“That’s… what he called his edgy self-insert OC when he was fifteen”
“I’m not even going to ask. Anyways, I defeated him with the power of friendship-”

“Maybe Undyne was right about you being an anime protagonist”

“Shut up. Asriel used the SOULs he had absorbed’s power to destroy the barrier and release monsterkind. He even went so far as to restore the lives that Asgore had taken to harvest SOULs. In the end, he became Flowey again, but he was fixed. He was Asriel again, just in Flowey’s body”

Kris sniffed slightly before sitting down on their bed again, keeping their gaze fixed on the SOUL as they thought about Asriel, their Azzy, and if he was the same as this other world. Kris could certainly believe the Azzy they knew would have done the same, even without a little human getting involved. Because, that’s just what happened, wasn’t it? There was Asriel and there was always a little human getting involved.

“Are you scared of me, Kris?”

Kris focused back on the SOUL as they gave a little forced laugh, “No”

“Do you trust me?”

“No”

“How can I make you trust me?”

Kris laid back down on their bed as they thought about that question. Could they? Maybe, no matter what… she… said, but even still…

The words Kris said in response weren’t what they expected, but they were happy with them regardless.

“Tell me more about this world, your friends especially”

The SOUL flew over, glowing bright once more as they took a deep inhale and went, “Well…”

Notes:

Another chapter out faster than I think anyone could have anticipated!

I think I just way to much freetime rn, so updates will most likely be quite frequent as I am still greatly enjoying this

Hope you also enjoy just as much I did writing this

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Summary:

The SOUL tells Kris a little more about its 'friends' in the Underground

“When I first fell into the Underground, I landed in the Ruins of the old capital of monsterkind, Home.”

“He seriously named it Home?” Kris asked, eyebrow raised.

“As I said, bad at naming in every universe”

The SOUL’s glow had returned to its full strength and even brightened as the conversation between them had continued. Furthermore, as the conversation had continued, Kris had begun to notice just how human the SOUL actually acted, stumbling over its words when excited, stuttering slightly when sad or scared. It almost made Kris sorry for the things they had done to the SOUL so far. Almost.

“Anyways, I was found and rescued by your mother, Toriel” The SOUL continued, “She guided me through the Ruins and kept me safe from the monsters there”

“Sounds like her” said Kris, feeling the slightest smile form on their face.

“Until she abandoned me at the end of a hallway and left me to fend for myself”

“Still sounds like her”

The SOUL laughed at that, yet another human behaviour: dark humour.

“It was more like I wandered off, but still. After she found me again, she had baked me a butterscotch and cinnamon pie, which… I believe is your favorite?” said the SOUL, seeming to give Kris a slight side-eye, despite the… lack of eyes.

“What, do you need more obvious clues than the ones I gave in TV World?”

“Well, you don’t seem to think I’m the smartest”

They both laughed at that, although for Kris, it was more of a slight chuckle than a laugh, still committed to an emotionless facade despite their (now) ability to do otherwise.

“Maybe you are the more human one”

“What?”

“Nothing!” the SOUL said, quickly over its slight sentimentality, “Anyway I- uh- I- I did end up… fighting Toriel”

Kris stiffened slightly.

“No- Nothing bad, trust me. She was the one who initiated it”

“Why?”

“Has she ever threatened to kill you, but she actually meant it in an affectionate way?”

Kris thought back to a time when she had said that when they were little; having tried to use boiling water to defrost the car one winter morning. This had resulted in the windows shattering instantly. Asgore had spent the morning unable to overcome his laughter, whilst Toriel had given Kris a death stare throughout the day, although they could tell she was also trying not to laugh

“A few times”

“Well she actually tried to kill me, in an affectionate way”

“Yet again, why?”

“W-well I don’t think she meant to, she did always seem horrified when I died. I guess she just didn’t have strong enough magic control”

“Damn, guess my family isn’t as cool as I thought”

“Yeah… Papyrus must have been stronger”

Kris didn’t recognise that name, which was surprisingly concerning to them, “Who’s… Papyrus?”

“The Roaring Knight”

“WHAT!?”

“No, no, forget I said that, it was a joke… I hope. He was actually the broth- ah- uh, he was just a relatively cool skele- ah- oh- uh- Well, he was the coolest monster I ever met!”

Kris had missed most of that, following the SOULs overly casual delivery of the most panic-inducing thing Kris had heard, but they were still able to tell when the SOUL was dodging around something, mostly because it wasn’t subtle at all.

“What- what is it? What aren’t you saying to me?”

The SOUL looked uncomfortable, even more uncomfortable than they had looked at any previous point in these conversations as they said, “You, know Kris, you could… go to sleep- uh- and maybe not hear me say something that could cause you to- uh- do a murder?”

“You’ve interested me too much now, tell me”

“Ok, ok… he’s… Sans’ brother” the SOUL muttered, volume decreasing with every word.

“Sans?” Kris asked, before their mind quickly conjured up an image, an image of a very distinct form, a very… jittery skeleton.

“Sans” Kris growled, anger welling up inside of them

“Listen Kris, I know how you’re feeling, but just- uh- calm down, ok”

“Oh, I am calm” said Kris, stretching their face into a very drawn-out smile as they reached for their knife, “So, you knew the shopkeep in this other world, too? Tell me about him”

It was actually impressive to Kris, how the SOUL could convey such emotion without any distinct facial features. Specifically, now, it was conveying fear, as it seemed to glance repeatedly at Kris’ hand reaching for their knife.

The fear was made especially obvious as the SOUL stumbled over its words very heavily, “W-well I- uh- he w-was- uh- he was pretty… much the same? He w-wasn’t any less- uh- pun-inclined? He was- uh- don’t hurt me. HE WAS- UH- he was pretty much just the local funny man! The comedian! The- the…”

“...”

“He was still trying to bang your mom” the SOUL quickly muttered.

Kris drew their knife, “What was that?”

“I mean- uh- oh no- uh- well, s-she was very- uh- lonely stuck in the Ruins, she couldn’t really leave is the thing a-and- well she was very happy, when a man started speaking to her… from behind the door, telling her… k-knock-knock jokes?”

Kris just stared.

The SOUL continued hurriedly “I mean I- I- I don’t even know if they got together, they only met i-in person, when I broke the barrier, and I didn’t see what came after, I- I- I just kind of assumed!”

Kris held their gaze on the small heart for a little while longer before they broke the standoff with a loud, extended sigh.

The SOUL looked slightly surprised by Kris’ reaction, but before it could speak, they cut it off, “I don’t know if I can blame her”

“For what?”

“For… all of it, I guess. I was always kind of hoping she would get back with dad. But, honestly I don’t think it's wrong for her to try with someone else, but I don’t… want things to change like that. What will Azzy think when he…? But, if it makes her happy, it should be okay, right? I- I- just…”

“Listen Kris, I get it, you don’t want things to change, but sometimes, change is necessary, for the best… outcome”

“You sound creepy when you say that” Kris said, considering the SOULs words: Best possible outcome? I’ll get the best possible outcome with or without you, don’t worry.

“Tell me about his brother” Kris said

“Well, Papyrus was just… the coolest! He was without a doubt, one of the best people I met down there. He was quite energetic… Ok, he was very energetic, think of the most dedicated person you can imagine and times that by ten. Now imagine that that person was completely insane at the same time and that… is what Papyrus was like”

“So… Roulxs Kaard?”

“... I don’t like that”

Kris gave a slight snort, looking at the SOUL as they laid back down. The image of Roulxs with Sans’ head had appeared in their mind and they were trying their hardest not to laugh aloud as they asked the next question, “What- heh- what were they so dedicated about?”

“Oh, just capturing a human so he could join the Royal Guard, in order to become “SUPER POPULAR””

“Normal stuff, then”

“Yep. He never got into the Royal Guard, though, mostly because he never actually captured a human, as I gave him quite the runaround. Besides that though, Undyne never believed he could be strong enough to join the Royal Guard, but, instead of telling him that, she just kept membership just out of his reach by giving him more and more difficult tasks to join”

“Sounds unfair”

“Yeah, I wonder if they talked about that after the barrier…”

Kris noticed the SOUL’s words trail off and noted that it was the second time it had neglected to talk about its friends after they were freed from the Underground, causing them to ask, “You… don’t seem to know much about your friends after they left the Underground, do you?”

To Kris’ surprise, the SOUL flinched, actually flinched, at that question before it responded very hurriedly, “I- I- I- mean- I- I- was b-busy? Yeah- I- I- was busy! You know w-what it’s like, c-can’t keep up w-with everyone you know, r-right?”

Kris squinting at the SOUL skeptically, said, “What are you-”

“I DATED PAPYRUS”

“What?”

“AND I’LL DO IT AGAIN”

Even if Kris knew how to respond to that, they never got the chance; the SOUL started speaking so incredibly fast, as if to overload Kris’ mind,

“After I beat Papyrus he took me to his house and showed me around and we went into his bedroom and we talked about dating and afterwards he said I should spread out my friendship energy rather than just be dedicated to him!”

Several thoughts were running through Kris’ mind at that moment, so it was only typical that the one that came out was the least important one, “You got friendzoned by a skeleton?”

“I GOT FRIENDZONED BY A SKELETON!”

The two of them held the uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, before the SOUL continued again at a more calm, yet still energetic pace.

“SO UNDYNE, yeah Undyne! Undyne was the captain of the Royal Guard, a real toughnut, a…”

“You’ve already talked about Undyne”

“I haven’t talked enough, so shut up… um- She burnt her house down”

“H-how?”

“She was teaching me to make spaghetti”

“... Was it Alphys or Undyne who was the… what did you call it… ‘Useless Lesbian’”

“Forgot you heard that”

“Unfortunately, I did”

“Honestly, they were both useless, I once delivered Alphys a love letter from Undyne, and she thought it was from me”

“I can’t imagine why anyone would want to date you”

“Rude, I would say the same for you, but I can think of quite a few”

“Have you considered that it’s weird to want certain individuals to be in a couple”

“Not at all”

Kris looked at the SOUL closely, “I mean, I get the lack of consequence in this case, POSSESSING ME and all that, but do you mean to tell me that, in this other world, nobody looked at you and told you, “don’t do that””

The SOUL glowed further, “Well, aside from probably once or twice, not really, I guess they never really… knew… me…” it finished with its glow diminishing slowly.

“You knew them so well, but they didn’t know you? How does that work?”

The SOUL just shrugged non-commitally and looked away

Kris tried to get their attention again, saying, “Hey, there is that one person you haven’t told me about, that… uh- what was their-”

The SOUL suddenly floated up to Kris’ eye-level, glowing brightly and cutting in with an excited, “ Oh, Mettaton!”

 

“What, no- I mean-”

“Mettaton was an entertainment robot built by Alphys, unique for being a robot with a SOUL, something unheard of by then”

“No- I- was talk-”

“However, she was kind of cheating, as Mettaton was actually a ghost monster possessing a robot body. He agreed to do so, if Alphys would make the body of his dreams, as he was dissatisfied with having an incorporeal form”

“I- I- was ask-”

“He called it his ‘EX form’ and it was very… leggy.”

“What- I-”

“He was such a diva, with brilliant showmanship, although he was quite full of himself as a result”

“I was talk-”

“He also had a ‘NEO form’ which was meant to be stronger, but actually really wasn’t”
“I was talking about- wait, did you say… NEO?”

“Yeah… like Spamton”

“How?”

“He’s in this world too, he drew the NEO form, and that’s why it was in Cyber World”

“How have I never seen a ghost-possessed-robot around Hometown?”

“Well, he ain’t a robot here, he’s the guy in the house you gave Tenna to”

“I- what- nevermind. I was asking about the human you mentioned, the ‘special’ one, uh- Frisk, was it?”

The SOUL went very silent after that, its glow diminishing quickly.

“What was Frisk like?”

The SOUL stayed silent.

Something occurred to Kris just then, but they pushed the thought down, “What made them so ‘special’”

“...”

“How didn’t you know them? You said they were the reason Asgore never collected the seven SOULs, but you said you beat him”

“...”

The thought rose back up, and Kris stood to circle around the SOUL.

“Hey, how come you don’t know about what your friends did, after they left the Underground?”

“...”

“How come you said, your ‘friends’ didn’t know you”

“...Kris…”

“Let me guess what Frisk was like”

“...”

“Let’s see, a young human with a… human SOUL”

“...”

“A red SOUL”

“...”

“A red SOUL capable of resets”

“...”

“As you said, a very special human”

“...”

Kris stared down at the SOUL intensely, “Or as you would call them… A vessel, correct?”

Slowly, the SOUL… nodded.

Notes:

With another chapter completed, I want to say a genuine thank you to all of you who have been so positive about this fic

This is honestly one of the most fulfilling things I have done, so I'm glad many of you enjoy it.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Summary:

Kris' discussion with the SOUL gets a little... heated as the SOUL talks about things that strike a very specific chord within Kris

“N-now, Kris, I know that… sounds… bad”

Kris grabbed the SOUL, gripping it with all their strength, before hurtling it into the birdcage at the foot of their bed.

The heart slammed into the edge of the cage, causing it to rock back and crash against the bedroom wall, swinging the door shut.

Kris slowly began to walk over to the cage keeping their stare firmly fixed on the SOUL.

“So, you’re telling me… that not only have you taken control of me, changed everything about my life on some strange whim, you’re telling me… I’m not even the first?”

The SOUL darted around the cage, smashing into the bars, trying to get out, despite the fact the cage door had somehow locked itself.

Kris slowly moved closer

“You took away someone else’s life, replaced the person they were with yourself, so you could do what? ‘Make new friends’?”

The SOUL stopped jittering around the cage, starting to slowly move towards the back of it, away from Kris

Kris grinned, reaching for their knife hilt.

“Ah, are you scared now? You should be, you thought there were no consequences to ruining a child’s life, but there will be”

“Kris I-”

“Oh! Let’s not forget that you did it OVER and OVER again, living the same day, so you could find new ways to ruin their life, out of ‘curiosity’”

“They couldn’t reme-”

Kris kicked the cage.

“Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP! I don’t care about your excuses, I don’t care if you thought opening up to me, and telling me about all of your ‘wonderful experiences’ - SOMEONE ELSE’S EXPERIENCES, BY THE WAY - would make me trust, or care, about you”

The SOUL stayed silent.

Kris kneeled next to the cage, placing their knife’s blade on the bars.

“What made you think that telling me about ‘all the good you’ve done’ would make all the lives you stole excusable?”

“Kris, I- I get how you feel, but you need to understand, I-I- didn’t have a choi-”

“YOU ‘DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE’?! You could have CHOSEN not to reset, you could have chosen to leave that child alone, you could have-”

“I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW I WAS POSSESSING THEM!”

Kris paused, slightly taken aback by the SOUL’s outburst, “How could you… not know?”

The SOUL continued, their voice jittering in fear, “When I woke up in that cave, I had no idea what was going on, I- I thought I was in my body. It took me a long time to start to realise things were weird, a-after I beat… Flowey, he told me about resetting, he hinted at a ‘better ending’... And so, I tried again and again to get this ‘better ending’ and, eventually, it worked, I- I SAVEd everyone, I freed them all, and Asriel… Asriel asked me…”

The SOULs voice faded out as Kris’ mind began to wander, an image beginning to take form in their minds’ eye yet again: They stood in a black void, a white goat monster was standing, turned away from them. Asriel turned around to face Kris, smiling. He spoke, “You aren’t actually Chara, are you? Chara’s been gone a long time” A single tear rolled down his face, “Um… what… IS your name?” Kris tried to speak, to call out their brother, but their lips began to move independently of them, a sensation that should have been familiar to them, though this felt… different. Kris didn’t hear what came out of their mouth, but Asriel replied, “‘Frisk’? That’s… a nice name…”

“Kris?”

The image faded as Kris focused on the SOUL, anger beginning to well up inside of them again.

“Kris… are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” they snapped, trying to focus on the image of their brother in their mind.

“Well… as I was saying, when Frisk spoke, I realised what was happening, so… I began to look for answers; why was I there? How had I come to be in control of Frisk? Why had Frisk come to the Underground? So, I started to-”

“So you kept resetting, making the same kid suffer again and again, because your ‘curiosity’ is more important than anyone’s feelings, right?”

“No, no, no, Kris, you don’t understand, I was trying to help them, not hurt them”

“‘Help them’ by forcing them to live the same day over and over again? Did they even know what you were doing to them? Did they even understand that their autonomy was being stolen?”

“I mean, they were probably, like, 6? So-”

“THEY WERE SIX!?”

“MAYBE! MAYBE! I DON’T KNOW! They weren’t as old as you, I guess?!”

Kris was dumbfounded by the SOULs disregard for the life of Frisk, not that it truly surprised them, as they had seen plenty of disregard for their own life in the last four days.

The SOUL began bouncing around the cage again, desperately trying to force its way out of the battered cage.

Kris stood on top of the cage, bending down to push the knife tip through the gap in the cage bars, and putting it directly above the SOUL.

Kris sighed, “Listen, I am getting… so tired of you. Honestly, if not for… her plan… I would have killed you by now… so, explain to me, why shouldn’t I?”

The SOUL stopped in the cage and looked up at Kris, “W-well, Kris, you would die without me remember?”

Kris shook their head, “Honestly, right now, I don’t seem to care”

The SOUL began jittering again, “Uh- w-well, Kris, I mean, as you said, you n-need me for… her plan… who- who is… her by the-”

Kris stomped on the cage, “Again, don’t care, right now, she could burn in hell for all I care”

The SOUL slowed once more, coming to a halt and responding to Kris, in a quiet, breathless voice, “W-what if- what if, the next person to p-possess you is w-worse?”

Kris stared down at the SOUL, as it began to breathe deeply and repeatedly as it stared up at Kris. They drew back their knife and took their foot off the cage, before responding just as quietly as it had spoken first, “How do you know that will happen?”

The SOUL stared back at Kris, not speaking, letting seconds upon seconds pass between them silently, before it responded, “As you said, Kris, I saw the same day again and again, every possibility, every… route, I know what it means to hunt the ‘best possible outcome’, I know what it means to disregard every possible consequence for that ending, and I know what it means to have those consequences look you in the eyes and judge you for what you did. I know that will happen Kris, because I’ve seen it before”

Kris kept the silence in response, thinking about the SOULs words, wondering what the SOUL meant about the ‘consequences looking them in the eyes’, and what consequences had looked IT in the eyes. They sighed, “Really, I still don’t care what wisdom you have to offer me right now, but now I don’t care enough to kill you either”

The SOUL exhaled, “Really, Kris? I don’t understand, you care so much about the life of a human you’ve never met, in an entirely different world to your own, yet you don’t seem to give a damn about the lives of your friends, family members, or anyone else you know, as you seek a ‘better ending’ , and yet you call me wrong for doing the same thing, for shame”

Kris grunted, “It’s different, they aren’t MY friends, they’re YOURS”

“You know that’s a lie, Kris, you care about them just as much as I cared about my friends in the other world”

Kris started shouting, “What do you mean, you cared?! You would reset every time they got anywhere near freedom! By your own logic, they weren’t your friends, they were FRISK’S! And that logic is only due to your desire to NEVER accept ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THOSE ACTIONS! How far are you willing to go here?! Will you save everything, just to reset, again and again out of some ‘curiosity’?! Why do you even care so much, for a world you will just reset again and again!?”

The SOUL started shouting in response, “OF COURSE I CARED! OF COURSE I ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY! IT DOESN’T MATTER WHOSE BODY I WAS IN, I LOVED THEM LIKE FAMILY! WOULD YOU ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DEATHS OF YOUR FAMILY, KRIS?! I cared because, I cared about them and loved them so deeply, like a second family, that it broke my heart to have to kill them all”

Kris froze, not quite certain of what the SOUL had just said, feeling a new anger rise up in them, as they quietly responded with a simple, “What?”

Notes:

Honestly really excited to have this chapter out, as it is exactly the kind of stuff I really wanted to write about from the moment I started this fic.

Hope you really enjoyed, and hope you're all ready for talking the Geno route next chapter

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Summary:

The SOUL and Kris have discussion about very... serious topics

And Kris has a very justified crashout

The SOUL froze, just suddenly realising what it had said, as Kris began to walk towards it, knife in hand.

It nervously chuckled, “K-kris, I didn’t- I didn’t mean what you-”

“What did you mean then?” Kris wasn’t grinning anymore, they were scowling, directing all of their hatred into a precise blade of emotion aimed at the SOUL, kind of like the sharp blade they were holding in their hand, “What exactly could you have meant by “Kill them all" ?"

The SOUL began to shudder, “K-kris… please, just l-listen, I can explain, it was…”

“‘Curiosity’? Of course, it was just ‘curiosity’ so, it doesn’t matter what you did, it was for a good cause!” Kris said sarcastically.

“I wasn’t going to…”

“Oh, it was an ‘accident’, of course, you didn’t mean to kill them all, you just hit them a little too hard, right?”

“Kris please, you need to understand”

Kris raised their voice, “What do I need to understand? What on earth could I understand that would make me okay with GENOCIDE?!”

“Shut up”

“WHAT WAS THAT!?”

“I SAID SHUT UP KRIS!”

Kris stopped, surprised by the bluntness of the SOUL’s remark. They began twirling their knife as they continued, “Really? I thought I was the one who lost their temper, but it seems like you get just as mad, when someone calls you out on your ‘mistakes’”

The SOUL stared directly at Kris, “Kris, what are you talking about? YOU ARE HURTING PEOPLE, TEAMING UP WITH THE ROARING KNIGHT, ALMOST GETTING YOUR FRIENDS KILLED! You didn’t make a ‘mistake’, you have betrayed people who trusted you, your friends, your family, and now you call me a hypocrite?”

Kris grit their teeth, “How is that worse than what you did!? I’m not doing this for ‘curiosity’, I’m not doing this out of some sadistic boredom, I’m making necessary sacrifices to make everything right, so I want you to explain to me, what makes you the one in the right?”

The SOUL held its stare with Kris, continuing in a grave tone, “Kris, you need to understand that every single day, I regret what I did, every time I remember them, I see them turning to dust before my eyes, I hear their voices pleading for me to stop, to put down the knife”

Kris began raising the knife again, disgusted by the cold tone the SOUL spoke of ‘regret’ with.

The SOUL began panicking again, “Kris, listen, please, I can explain everything, just… put down the knife, please”

Kris hesitated before letting their arm hang by their side, “Okay, explain. But if you say anything I don’t like, you’re going in the lake, no matter what ‘plans’ anyone has, understand?”

The SOUL twitched slightly, a motion reminiscent of a nod, before continuing, “Understood” It sighed, “I lost count of how many times I had reset by then, trying to find every possible outcome, every ending”

The SOUL looked up at Kris, “I realised the more I killed, the more EXP I got, the more EXP I got, the higher my LV got, the… stronger I got”

Kris thought for a moment, before they realised and replied angrily, “EXP? Like a video game?! And LV… as in level?”

“Well yes, but you see, they don’t mean what you think they mean. LV is short for LOVE!”

“You get LOVE… from killing people?”

“Yes… well no, you see, EXP isn’t ‘experience points’ it’s… ‘execution points’, an acronym”

“It stands for… what?”

“LOVE too, is an acronym, it stands for Level Of Violence”

Kris stared down in horror, tightening their grip on their knife, “Continue, quickly”

“W-well, after a while… I stopped finding monsters to fight, as if I'd… killed them all. Something changed, the atmosphere became darker, as if the world had slowed down, like the music. After I… killed T-Toriel, a voice began to speak to me, telling me… how many to kill. I continued through the Underground, telling myself it was the voice’s fault, that they had made me do it or tricked me or something… anything to tell myself… it was okay”

Kris kept their eyes fixed on the SOUL, considering its words, its admission of guilt, considering a world, empty of life, full of death, except for a single human child, just as empty as the world around them.

The SOUL continued, unaware of Kris’ thoughts, “I kept going, too strong to be stopped, until… Undyne” The SOUL gulped, “It turns out that some monsters can have at least a little DETERMINATION, or, at least she could”

Kris couldn’t help but smile slightly at the thoughts entering their mind, “So she beat your ass, right?”

The SOUL groaned, “For a while, yes, but with an infinite amount of resets, you can beat anything eventually, but, when I did win, the way she… melted, and… the things she said… I almost stopped right there, but I told myself again and again, ‘It’s the voice that’s doing this’
‘It’s not my fault’, If only… if only that was right.” The SOUL smiled up at Kris, a little smile as if it were trying to make the sentence humorous. Kris looked back down with a completely stern expression. The SOUL gave a dry, nervous chuckle before resuming, “Anyway, I… kept going, I kept on… killing, I went all the way to that last corridor and… he was there”

“Who?” Kris asked, becoming curious, “Asgore, Flowey, who?”

“Sans”

“...Sans?”

“He’s strong, ok?! He only had one hp sure… but he could dodge like hell, and he hit hard… well, not really he only did one damage, but he had really difficult to dodge attack patterns, ok?”

“You sound like Berdly” Kris began smiling slightly, continuing with a sarcastic tone, “Of course, I’m sure that a skeleton shopkeeper really gave you a run for your money”

“Listen, Kris, when somebody fills every second of their life with comedy, you will truly feel fear when they act serious”

Kris stopped smiling, not thinking of Sans but instead thinking of how the SOUL had been making so many jokes earlier, how every situation, it had defused with comedy… not anymore, though.

The SOUL took a deep sigh, “Sans was the last roadblock, afterwards, I killed everyone, Asgore, Flowey, all of them… and then, the voice spoke to me, they showed themselves… Chara”

“Chara?!”

“Yes, it turns out that enough DETERMINATION can do a lot of things, such as revive a long-dead child. They had guided me on the path in order to revive themselves, but in the end, they reminded me that they weren’t the one who made me kill them all. With the Underground basically destroyed, Chara used their DETERMINATION, not to reset the timeline, but to erase it completely, meaning I could never go back. As they said themselves, ‘Why would you want to go back to a world you destroyed?’”

Kris stared directly at the SOUL, as it sat in the cage, bent over in a sad pose, almost making Kris believe that it was actually feeling remorse for what it had done, but, still… it had killed them all in the first place, right?

Kris sighed, “So that’s it, you killed them all and now what you're doing here is trying to make up for that?”

“Not quite”

“What do you mean, not quite?”

The SOUL took a deep breath, “I convinced them to reset, but… there was a price. A SOUL… my SOUL”

Kris looked at it quizzically, “But… you are the SOUL… did they replace you… or something?”

“... When I went back, I was still in control, but something felt… off. So, I did my best, to fix everything, to get the best possible ending, but… after it all, I looked down at Frisk… and saw Chara staring back”

Kris just stared.

The SOUL sighed, “I am so scared Kris, for Frisk, for everyone, I know Chara wasn’t all bad, but they hated humans so deeply, and… after the genocide, they changed, they were so different-”

“Maybe they were better off without you”

“What?”

Kris scowled down at the SOUL, “You killed them all, YOU hurt them over and over again, but you won’t admit that, you keep trying to blame Chara” Kris stepped closer to the cage, “You go through this world again and again, because you miss the people you killed, but you can’t help but put them in danger again”

“Kris, I promise I-”

“Shut up. How do I know- How do YOU know that you won’t get ‘curious’ again, and go through that genocide all over again”

“Kris, if I did, YOU wouldn’t know”

Kris didn’t like that, Kris didn’t like that one bit.

They ran towards the cage and kicked it with all their might, the knife in their hand forgotten. Their foot hurt but they didn’t care, they kept stomping on the cage, bashing it, kicking it, letting the SOUL feel even more pain than it had felt in the closet.

“Kris pleas-”

Kris didn’t care, they kept kicking, they were going to kill it, they were going to-

Suddenly images flashed through their mind: They were in a bathroom, familiar to Kris, but they couldn’t quite recognise it in the moment. They were kicking a trashcan, with something inside, they couldn’t see it but they- they were in another room, sitting on a couch, it was cold, they were talking but they couldn’t quite hear themselves, there was a scream, and they saw… a… red… rose…

Kris recoiled backwards from the intensity of the things they just saw, grasping their face in pain. The SOUL cried out, but they couldn’t hear it. Their knees buckled and they fell to the floor.

“KRIS!” the SOUL cried again, their voice jarringly popping into Kris’ hearing.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!” Kris yelled.

“What was what, Kris talk to me, please!”

Kris was hyperventilating, trying to speak, but they couldn’t, their body wasn’t obeying, almost like the SOUL was in their body, but they could see the SOUL right there. With all of their effort, they spoke a single sentence, “It was cold”

The SOUL looked horrified as a realisation seemed to strike them, “oh, OH, Kris y-you, that was- Kris those were my memories”

Kris looked up at the SOUL, their breath slowing as anger began to fill them again, “What?”

“Those were my memories of- well, that’s not important, but, how can you-”

“You mean… I’ve been seeing your memories… THIS ENTIRE TIME!?”

“What do you mean, this entire time?!”

Kris stood up, grabbing their face again as they began pacing in circles, speaking through their hands, “I’ve been seeing… the other world, I thought- I thought I was just imagining things, but I-”

The SOUL stayed silent for a while, before speaking in a very hushed tone, “You know what this means Kris?... You’re stuck with me”

Kris really didn’t like that.

Notes:

This chapter took a while, but I'm glad to finally have it out!

This will be the penultimate chapter and, don't worry, Chapter 7 will be Very, Very Interesting

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Summary:

Kris and the SOUL finish their conversation, coming to a rather... hopeful resolution

The hours crept by slowly, stretching on for what felt like an eternity. Kris lay still in bed, staring up at the ceiling, as sunlight began to fill the room.

The SOUL lay still, too, sitting in the (now very dented) birdcage. It had been completely silent since it had last spoken with Kris, not even letting out a hum. It frustrated Kris, seeing it seemingly show regret, in such a human way, after how easily it spoke about committing genocide. Although, if it regretted…

Suddenly, Kris felt a warm sensation on their upper lip; they moved their hand up, and felt it come away warm and… sticky, a nosebleed. They wiped it off, opting to not tell the SOUL, it would probably want to… reset…

Kris sat up, and said aloud, “If you regret what you said, why not just reset?”

The SOUL stirred slightly, “What?” it asked in a slightly strained voice.

Kris shuffled slightly towards the edge of the bed, “I mean, if you regret telling me about the other world, why not reset, so I forget everything you said”

The SOUL stayed very silent, thinking intently about Kris’ proposal. After a little while, it just gave a little mirthless laugh, and muttered, “Why would I? It won’t change anything, my choices don’t matter”

That’s morbid, thought Kris, as they shuffled closer to the end of the bed, “What do you mean by that? Of course your choices matter, you make the choices for everyone, especially me”

The SOUL gave another laugh, “Oh, Kris, just because I choose the means, doesn’t mean I can change the end. I didn’t even choose to be controlling you!”

Kris reached the end of the bed and looked down at the SOUL, “What do you mean? How could you have… not chosen to control me?”

The SOUL went quiet again, prompting Kris to sigh and haul the birdcage up to their eye level, “Listen, you should consider yourself lucky I’m even letting you talk, so talk”

The SOUL sighed, “Fine, when I came here, the first thing I saw wasn't you, hometown, or anything like that… it was a void, an empty blank space, with a voice, speaking to me, a calm voice, guiding me”

Kris felt a chill pass over them, “Who was speaking?”

The SOUL ignored, or may have not heard, Kris, as it simply carried on, “They guided me through… a process, to create… a vessel. But when I finished, they discarded it and told me- they told me… ‘No one can choose who they are in this world’”
Kris felt the chill grow deeper in themselves, “Who? Who told you?”

The SOUL took a deep breath in, and spoke in a cold deliberate way, “Him, or at least… I assume it was Him, it usually is”

Kris felt themselves getting frustrated, but they pushed it down to continue the question, “Who’s… ‘Him’?”

“His name was W.D. Ga-”

Suddenly, everything went dark, as if it had all been blown away by some burst of chilling wind, strong enough to knock Kris off their feet. It felt like they were falling, tumbling downwards through an endless void, until suddenly their room came rushing up to meet them.

Actually, Kris felt none of this, in fact, Kris felt the chill grow deeper in themselves, “Who? Who told you?”

The SOUL started, stuttering slightly as it tripped over the words it said, “W-what, did you just… not feel that?”

Kris tilted their head slightly in confusion, “What? Feel what?”

“I- oh my- are you kidding me?!” The SOUL sighed deeply, “Well, I can’t tell you His name because it resets when I try”

“Wait, you mean to tell me, that it reset just now?” asked Kris, “then why do I still remember everything you said, if it… reset?”

“I- that’s a good question, actually” the SOUL stammered, “I didn’t think I saved… wait, what if… no, that doesn’t make sense… maybe…”

Kris, feeling slightly impatient, held up their hand, “Stop, stop, slow down, you’re panicking too much… What’s so important about this guy that you aren’t even allowed to say his name?”

The SOUL inhaled deeply, “I was more of an observer to the Underground, while I could interact with things, no one could ever interact with me on a personal level, only through Frisk… but I quickly realised that wasn’t true” The SOUL exhaled, “I found things, clues, a paper trail outside of time and space… there were things hidden in places only I could reach, not Frisk. I learnt things that had been forgotten, and I heard Him… he spoke of darkness, devices, and his friends…”

The SOUL’s cryptic phrasing was starting to give Kris a headache, so they tried to focus on something else, but the words still forced their way into Kris’ mind. Instead, they focused on how the SOUL spoke about ‘forgotten things’, dredging up fuzzy memories, things that they had tried, and failed to forget. A tree, a man, and an egg… Suddenly Kris’ mind jolted them as they suddenly had a very obvious thought.

“You’re hunting him”

The SOUL, slightly startled by Kris’ sudden response, replied, “What?”

Kris gritted their teeth, “You said you heard Him, when you first came here. And if he is the same person, as the guy in the Underground, you want to find him, connecting the worlds. And that is why you were hunting for those eggs, you think they’re connected… don’t you?”

Kris could have sworn they almost saw a smile on the SOUL’s heart-like surface, as it continued, “You’re cleverer than I thought”

“Rude”

“Well, you’re right, Kris, I thought… well, I assumed the Forgotten Man was Him… everything added up at first, but after we found… Mancountry, I realised he was… something else, especially when He spoke to me again”

“He spoke to you again?”

“After I- well- uh- after I… died to the Knight… He spoke to me, and told me… that I might as well give up, but I kept trying, with the Shadow Mantle… Oh, and He spoke to me just last night… when you got that… phone call, He spoke about this whole world, he called it… he called it…”

“What did He call it?”

The SOUL could definitely be thought of as ‘smiling’ as it spoke, “He called it… His Deltarune”

Kris stared down at the SOUL, the surprisingly frail-looking thing it was at this moment, and at that moment, they saw both sides of it; the entity that had controlled every aspect of their life, but also the very human creature powered by curiosity. They opened the cage door, and pulled out the SOUL, letting it sit on their hand as they spoke in a soft voice, “Listen, I know we don’t always see eye-to-eye, but we are definitely stuck together for a reason, and we both clearly have our own goals, so we need to agree to cooperate, if we’re going to have to… share a body, ok?”

“Until you start getting people killed, sure”

“I could say the same for you”

“Fair. Listen, Kris, I can promise all I can to make this experience as comfortable for you as possible, but there will be times when I can’t do that and I don’t want you too-”

“Honestly, I don’t care at this point, whatever you make me do, I just want you to promise not to do anything to Susie, or Noelle, or-or Ralsei… please”

The SOUL made a slight noise of surprise, before saying, “So you really do care… you probably are the more human one of us”

Kris felt a smile start to turn up the corners of their mouth, “I don’t know, you making this promise certainly feels human”

The SOUL would definitely have smiled if it could.

The SOUL muttered slightly, “Thanks Kris, but- uh- just one thing…”

“Yes?”

“Your nose has been bleeding… like really badly, for a little while now”

Kris looked down, to see the stream of blood that was now covering the front of their sweater and face, “Ah”

“Yeah, you want to… uh- go get cleaned up and stuff?”

“I’d love to but…” Kris looked straight at the SOUL, “My legs won’t move”

“Ah” the SOUL mumbled, “I guess… you’re gonna have to put me back in”

“Yeah” said Kris, slowly pushing the SOUL towards their chest
Suddenly they remembered something, “Oh, and also, the last thing I need you to promise, never go crazy and start killing people”

The SOUL didn’t get to respond before they were back in control, as the familiar numbness settled over Kris, they felt something slightly different… a tenseness, like the SOUL was holding its breath. They were going to ask, but the SOUL quickly responded in their head, “I… promise”

Kris decided to let it slide, as their body started to move towards the bathroom. They could feel the power… no, not power, DETERMINATION to get the best possible ending, throughout their body… and SOUL.

Notes:

So, this is it, the end of this fic

This has been a hell of a fun journey for me, writing my first fic

I need to thank every single one of you who commented on this fic with your positive compliments and your critiscisms

I hope you have all enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it :)

Notes:

I'm probably gonna do more of this story, because I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting

Also I'm kind of treating the SOUL like its kind of an extra-dimensional entity who just behaves like a video game player, rather than just making this full meta