"It's a beautiful day outside."

The noon bell tolled once, then again, followed by more successions of low, piercing notes that rang throughout the hall of gold that was not yet adorned with red. The noise caused a small sense of excitement to stir within your veins, reignited the flame and fury that had been gathering inside you ever since you had followed the daemon throughout the catacombs of the Underground, watching as they slaughtered every monster in their path, leaving behind a trail of sorrow and silence.

For that was the fate that awaited the Underground, a long song filled with silence and ruin that knew not of the noise of life. It was the same kind of silence you thought you had heard during the fall of Snowden town, when there was not any living creature to make any noise, all living things reduced to ash and dust and nothing crept or crawled like they once had.

This silence was what accompanied long periods of death, when there was not one wandering in the land of the living that could recall the traditions of both the mind and heart. This was the silence that you lived inside now, the silence that you had allowed to become a part of you just as much as you were a part of it. But the bell toll was a deviation from this silence, perhaps the first and last noise in the Underground that would ring throughout these dusted ruins.

For the toll of the bell was the reminder of the time when this underground world was full of life, before it had been submerged into one of bloodshed and sorrow. It was too a reminder of a time that all things would come to an end, that time would pass on and leave behind nothing of the civilisations and kings and rulers that had once existed.

Because that was the truth of all things, was it not?

That these fleeting trivialities that we called problems and mountains that we tried to climb would ultimately mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Everything that you were facing right now would eventually wither into dust as the years went by, buried underneath layers of history that would never be remembered in the kinds of future generations.

And soon the whole of monsterkind and humanity would be no longer. One day or another some disaster would come along that would forever remove the two races from the planet, smushing out the brief flicker of flame they had been, forever leaving their cities with their spiralling towers to fade into nothing. That's what we all were in the end, small flare ups of life that were aspiring to think that we were something bigger than what we really were, hoping that there was some meaning to our accidental existences.

"Haven't we done this dance so many times?"

The daemon lumbered forth, its crimson eyes glinting in the faint light of the golden hall of judgement. How many times had the two of you fought in this hallway, danced the dance of dragons for a thousand or more times without end? It never did end, this constant battle between the two of you. For if you killed the damn creature it would simply come back from the dead, harnessing their determination to gain control over the timeline and assert dominion as rightful ruler over this world.

And every time they came back from the dead, they grew smarter, wiser against your attacks, memorising your patterns no longer how many times you tried to mix things up, tried to create some new pattern in hopes of spiting them. A dodge to the left, a skip to the right, all of that was engraved within the creature's mind. Every time they drew slightly closer, putting less distance between the tip of their blade and your throat. You knew very well that you too would fall victim to the knife as all the others had done in the Underground.

But you sure as hell were going to give them one wild ride before it was your time to kick the bucket.

You tapped into the reserves of magic within your mind, not surprised the slightest at how easy it was for you to bring forth the waves of arcane energy, how you could change the world around you with a mere flicker of thought guided by the wave of your emotions. It was not quite unlike the dream that had once plagued your mind back in those days in the laboratory, when every day had been a constant torture as electricity and bolts were drilled into your back without any real reason.

"You're very determined, aren't you?" You asked, repeating the line of dialogue that you had witnessed back in your dream. For the pieces of the puzzle were finally clicking into place, the tides of fate turning and rolling back into the ocean, for what had always been destined and foretold since the beginning of time was finally coming to pass. Every action, every moment of your life had led up to this moment, to face this human, this monster or whatever the hell it was inside the hall of judgement, where you might be trapped for the rest of eternity, fighting and battering them, no victory in sight.

"Blood traitor," the human spat at your feet, hatred in their gaze. "How can you defend them, these pests that live in the Underground? You must know that as humans, our souls are so much more stronger than the roaches in this place, that we can reset whole timelines and turn back the whole of time itself. And instead of joining in on the fun, you stand in front of us as our adversary. No matter how many timelines we live through, no matter how many times we reset, you're still determined to defeat me, even when you know you can't."

"Pretty much," you snarled, not bothering to hide the venom in your words, how you hated this creature for taking everything away from you. Your left hand burst into (F/c) flame as the creature, the sadistic fusion between the consciousnesses of Kris and the scientist, took a step closer to you.

But what bothered you the most about all of this was not the truth behind the dream that had come to you in your green catacomb, but rather the lack of another dream. Hadn't the comedian, Sans, had a dream where he too stood in the hall of judgement, fighting a human as you did now? But he had insisted that he had fought a different human with a different name, a different lifetime. If there was truth to your dream that was not a dream, than where did his come from?

But still you continued with the script as you had done thousands of times before. But nothing would change, it never did. "Don't you remember anything?" You asked the child, perhaps hoping to reach towards the human that had once lived inside this stolen vessel, Frisk as they had been called. Perhaps their consciousness was still inside there, fighting against the entities that had enslaved their mind. Though you knew that nothing would come of this, nothing ever did.

The creature began to laugh in glee. "You don't understand what it's like to have this power, this ability to control the timeline. We live inside the mind of the human whose mind we have claimed as your own. This human has ventured through this Underground world thousands of times, trying to fight the good fight, get the monsters to the Surface. It works, but it never ends! They live on the Surface, they live a full life and die of ripe old age. But every time they die, whether it be unnatural or natural, Frisk always end back here, the place it started and the place where it will never end. They're stuck in an endless cycle that there's no escape from!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" The creature had never mentioned this before, never offered any revelation about the human whom they had possessed. "How could this human that you're possessing have ventured through the Underground? Surely I would have remembered that."

"Aren't you ever paying attention?" The creature growled. "This underground world is stuck in an endless cycle, where a human by the name of Frisk falls down and either slaughters or frees the monsters trapped down here. The timeline would have gone the same way had we not intervened. You would have eventually freed yourselves from the
laboratory, lived a life in Snowden and met the human. But when we hijacked the human's soul, we took control over the timeline. This is our world now."

"But why don't you just stop?" You shook your head in frustration. "It's obvious that you won't get past me, that we'll be stuck in this hall for the rest of time. You're not going to win, and I'll stay here, fighting you for the rest of time if I have to!"

"Oh but you will," Kris' voice lifted an octave, portraying a child-like tone. It unnerved you how fast the child could change their outward appearance, morphing from a daemon back to near-human in under a second. "You might not think it yet, you might think of yourself as a saint who unlike us, haven't picked up the knife and started carving into the flesh and bone of the Underground, but you will, no matter how much you resist it. We can tell that you like hurting other people (Y/n), we can see it in the glint in your eyes every time we dance the dance of dragons in the hall of judgement, the way you like making others suffer the way you have all this time. It's only a matter of time before you start shifting that view onto others, onto him. Soon, very soon we think, you will join us, pick up your knives and take part in the fun as we rise to the Surface!"

Sickened, you raised your hand and tapped into a reserve of energy that was hidden inside your mind, launching a bright fireball at the spot where Kris had once been standing, watching as the daemon giggled and leapt out of the way with inhumane and practiced ease, jumping from side to side of the hallway as you spot wave after wave of attacks.

"Such a shame," the creature concluded and dodged to the right as you locked your fingers together and unleashed a torrent of (F/c) energy. The daemon disappeared into the dark and the shadows before reappearing a minute later, nearly catching you by surprise as they slashed downwards at the air you had once stood in only moments ago. You let loose a stream of curses as the knife dug into your forearm, a small spray of red droplets splattering across the tiled floor.

Red and gold.

You thought back to your dream, thought of how the knife had bit into your chest and you had been carried away on the sweet folds of death, welcomed and took its hand like an old friend. The red on the golden floor was an ominous sign of that, that perhaps the wheels and gears of fate were once more turning, marching you closer and closer to your ultimate demise...

The daemon lunged forewords, their knife aimed high over their head in preparation to strike you. You managed to whirl around just in time and formed a radiant cloud of (F/c) energy in your hands, slamming it into their chest and watching in sadistic satisfaction as the creature crumpled to the ground, blood streaming out of its mouth.

A part of you did not understand why this creature had control over the timeline, what so so special about Kris' and the fused scientist's mind that allowed them to have the power to come back from the dead and change the whole world around them with a mere flicker of thought. Though you recoiled from that power, there was a small part of you that relished the ability to change the nature of the world around you, to play god.

It would have been easiest to end this battle if you had summoned forth the same type of magic that you had used before, the magic that you had used against this creature when the two of you had fought in the underground laboratory, where two words had left your lips that were the remnants of a forgotten age where none were around to remember their meaning. You did not think that you could use that magic now. Whatever emotion that had ravaged your mind back then was vacant now, blinded by the sheer amount of hatred and anger that had gathered inside the pits of your stomach as you had watched this daemon slaughter monster after monster with impunity.

But there was also a profound wave of fatigue that was beginning to gather inside your muscles as you forced wave after wave of attack, as you found it harder and harder to move your limbs in the needed direction in order to counter the creature's blows. It was becoming more of a challenge to search the depths of your mind to bring forth the arcane magic that was tucked away for it seemed to be slipping from your grasp as your fatigue and weariness grew in strength.

The creature rushed forth for the third and final time, a devilish smile carved on its face for it too seemed to realise that its victory was at hand, the knife of silver and dust held high above their head in savage triumph. You attempted to comb your mind to bring forth the energy to create a counter attack but found the magic slip through your fingers as if it was nothing more than air.

The tip of the knife buried into your forearm, pinning you to the ground. The creature yelled in glee and kicked you once in the side and then on your head for good measure. They reached down and pulled out the knife from your skin and plunged it into your abdomen. You let loose a gasp as an icy coldness pierced your skin, for there was not pain but a different kind of sleepiness gathering in your mind, brought not from your tiredness but rather from the draining energy of your life source.

"Even when we loose, we win," the creature snarled as they pulled out the knife from your stomach, walking down the hallway as you bled out on the ground below.

You saw two figures in the distance, one tall and one short. You recognised them instantly as Sans and Papyrus, the two skeletons that you had allowed into your life but failed to protect. Through your fading vision could you make out that they were wearing garments of blue and red, Sans wearing a blue jacket and Papyrus clad in a red scarf. Your hand brushed against the blue jacket that you wore now and the scarf that was fashioned around your neck, two unimportant pieces of your attire that you hadn't put much thought into. Why were they wearing such things?

But that didn't matter, you thought. Your life would soon end and you could join the two of them in whatever land of eternal darkness was waiting, where your mind would simply cease thinking and you could forever be free from the troubles of mankind.

You didn't like that thought.

You didn't like the thought that this creature had won, that this creature had so easily been able to come back from the dead and push you to the brink before delivering the killing blow, that the whole of fate seemed to be on its side, always giving them the upper hand, always letting them win. It felt as if you were the lone force pushing back against the whims of fate, hoping to steer it in another direction.

"No," you whispered as you slowly got to your feet, your right hand smeared in your own blood. "I won't let you win," you snarled as you searched your mind amongst the growing fatigue, the growing darkness that was threatening to send you spiralling into the sea of death and oblivion that was the destiny for all creatures in the land of the living.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" The creature giggled as it whipped around, seeming slightly frustrated that you hadn't yet died. "We have the power of gods and immortals on our side. What do you have? You have nothing more than the ghosts of your dead brethren and the mere false hope that you can somehow change things in your favour!"

Hope.

You liked that emotion, the way that hope seemed to be a manifestation of light in the never-ending darkness, a single blade of thought that could cut through legions and armies of shadow that this creature commanded. You held onto hope, allowed it to become a part of you just as you were a part of it.

"We," you gasped as you staggered forwards, no longer crippled by the agony of your wounds for the hope pumping through your veins was greater than any mortal injury of the flesh. "Every time you've spoken to me, you've always used the word we, showing that even if you have merged your consciousness with the scientist, the two of you aren't one entity. Which means..."

With a flicker of thought you forced the creature to the ground, watching in sadistic satisfaction as the daemon wailed and struggled in your grip, the way that they were feeling the same agony as they had inflicted upon all monsters of the Underground. You brought the creature's soul into view and saw, just as you had thought, that it resembles both Kris' and the scientist's fused together.

You raised your right hand above your head, alive with white flame, and slammed it against the soul, shattering it into two. The creature let loose an agonised scream and collapsed to the ground, shaking as the very basis of its code was rewritten. You let loose a gasp as a sudden stream of energy flowed through you, the balance shifted.

For the reason, which you understood now, that Kris had been able to maintain control over this timeline was because that their soul had been latched onto the scientist's, their determination amplified and thus allowing them dominant control over this world. But now the tides of fate had turned and you were the one in this dead world with the ability to reset, the power of gods on your side.

There was of course, a choice.

There were two parts of the monster's soul and you had the power to eradicate only one half from existence. If you decided to remove the scientist, to eradicate his coding ad make him nothing more than a bad memory in the back of your mind, the human's soul would escape and remain an unseen enemy in the dark.

Or you could remove Kris from this universe but in doing so the scientist's soul would shatter, dying an ordinary death as all other monsters did. So if you did reset, the scientist would still be a part of this universe and remain a threat in the next life.

You looked from the scientist's soul and then to Kris', your mind made.

"Forgive me," you whispered as you destroyed one half of the soul, watching as the other faded into oblivion.

You brought forth two buttons before you, brushing your fingers against the orange font. The strength of gods was now on your side, the ability to edit and reshape the world around you. You would have this power only once, you realised. For when you reset and things returned to the way they should have always been, the human Frisk would fall into this underground world and once more regain control over the ability to reset.

"See you soon," you snarled and slammed your fist onto the reset button, watching as the world around you began to fade into oblivion, the tides turned.

At least before you too faded into nothing.