Toby Fox was right. Purgatory was difficult.

Of course he was right, after all, he was god. It was weird, knowing that Papyrus had just looked god in the eye as he was being pet by his niece and nephew. Normal life was just a concept at this point, a distant idea that he couldn't even remember how it had felt when he had obtained it before.

At least the pathway was straight forward. Go from heaven, through the hall, into purgatory before they had to find their way to hell. That's where Sans was.

Purgatory was not what he expected, though.

Their god had warned them about purgatory. It wasn't a physical layer itself, like heaven and hell were, but instead was a passageway between the two afterlife worlds. This was where the "middle" people were stored, those who weren't good enough for heaven but weren't meant for hell. They just existed, and were able to win their way to heaven or be sent down to hell through their actions in purgatory.

It was the void, and that was what terrified him. Purgatory was the void, cutting through heaven and hell to create a pathway and to keep the souls of the dead there. Toby Fox had explained it as a 'test trial' of sorts, where souls were trapped in their own imagination and tested. Sometimes angels and demons would go into purgatory to retrieve a few souls for help, but overall the souls were left to do their own thing and earn their eternal salvation or hell.

"Time itself isn't a concept there, so that will be the biggest problem," Toby has explained, "The void there bypasses time to keep the souls testing, since they have to go to heaven or hell eventually by proving themselves. You guys will be able to avoid this, as you aren't dead, but you guys may run into some other people who have been, are, or will be in purgatory. Time there is very odd, and if there's any time changes, usually purgatory ends up containing this and can reflect those timelines. You guys just have to keep walking forward, but you'll see time anomalies from across history. Be prepared for that, and remember to keep walking forward."

Keep walking forward. Right, yeah, he could do this.

Except for the fact that they all got separated almost immediately.

Toby Fox had explained this too, stating, "Purgatory will probably split you up, the space there too is unusual. It doesn't shift, it just moves all of it's souls to separate. You guys don't have to worry about that, if you keep walking straight you'll find hell, and if you turn in any other direction you'll end up in heaven again, so you can just go back in and walk straight."

Papyrus also didn't like that. He knew that he couldn't really get hurt, but it still felt awful being alone. After all of those years living in a dainty, empty house, he had grown to like the company the others provided. Maybe that's what led Sans to making his own decisions.

The scene around Papyrus shifted so much he really couldn't identify where he was. One moment he was walking through some type of old town, buildings burning in the distance as vintage looking people ran about, screaming. The next he was walking on top of Mount Ebott, watching distant figures forming a barrier with seven wands that shared the similar runes across their wood.

So those were the human mages that had trapped them underground...

They had used runes?

The tall skeleton shook his head and pressed forward, watching the scene wash away around him. Toby Fox was right, the scenes from around history were repeating themselves around him. It was odd, Papyrus hadn't expected purgatory to be like this. Instead of being its own world, it just contained anomalies of time, things that happened in different timelines and things like that. It felt odd, and Papyrus didn't understand fully, but he managed to somewhat wrap his head around it.

After all, the anomalies had to go somewhere, and purgatory was the place. That's why the human souls between heaven and hell went there, because they were technically the anomalies of the afterlife. Not good enough for heaven, not bad enough for hell.

More scenes flashed by, barely sticking around before the next would appear. That seemed to be from random places in history, some he recognized and others he found odd. The pyramids being built, a woman who resembled the art of Cleopatra sitting above them, her hand hovering next to a glowing yellow star. A person dressed in old rags, clutching an infant to their chest as they stared up at a large demon figure. Another person dressed in rags, bones showing through their fur as they huddled next to a dead body, distant sounds of marching taking place as they frantically tried to press in the air, to no avail. Two people standing next to a broken through window, hands held together as smoke bellowed out from behind them, determination sparkling through their souls.

A collection of souls circled around in a sphere, hiding what was inside as more and more souls shot forward to gather in the ever growing collection, all beating together as one.

Sans, standing alone in the judgement hall underground as the world faded around him and his once blue jacket turned white.

Papyrus, wearing an orange hoodie as he too stood in the judgement hall, a blue bandanna grasped in his hands as he turned towards the other side as footsteps approached.

A glitched skeleton sitting alone in the void, rocking back and forth as his blue string wrapped digits scratched at his face while he cackled in his insanity of loneliness.

Blue and yellow colors of magic danced down a cloak, a masked man walking down a hallway alone.

The brown haired human child who once lived underground reaching out towards a glowing yellow star, wings sprouting from their body as blood seeped from their mouth.

Each of these events played one by one, showing snippets of different lifetimes that had and could happen. Papyrus could only walk forward, trying to ignore them as best as he could. Maybe they already did happen, or maybe they could happen, but these were timelines that were contained within purgatory. These weren't his timeline, he wasn't experiencing this. Right now, his own, true timeline needed help, he needed to find Sans and help his family.

Bean and Papyrus standing in the darkness, the two talking words the real Papyrus couldn't hear as they looked down into the void.

A black hand emerging from a portal on earth as the ground started to erupt with a red and black glow.

Black tentacles sprouting from the back of a skeleton.

A tall, lean skeleton with lines going from his eye sockets pressing his hands from the inside of the mirror, looking out from his prison.

Glowing pink eye lights piercing him from the darkness, the sound of a trains whistle being heard in the distance before there was the sound of dust.

An empty paper office, the smell of apple cider and prominent.

A blue police box, disappearing with a whirl outside of Sans' old house.

Two skeleton hands clasping together as they fell asleep below a large apple tree.

Ḁ̷̘̿ ̷͓̖̭̌s̷̰̈͘ċ̵͕͇̻̍͝ȋ̷̝̙e̶̢̺͗n̴̪̺̳̋t̸͈͍̔͠ị̶̡̧̓̌s̸̫̮̫͘t̴̨͔̔͛ ̵̫̀e̴̼͕̩͂s̴̖͝ͅć̵̛̣̬a̷̼͗p̵͈̹̝̓̕ì̴̩̖̩͠n̸̢͈̎͒͂g̸̖̙͛ ̶̱̲̓͛f̷̗͑r̷͓̘̗͗͋̌o̴̲̙͋̿̑m̸̥̤͌̽͐ ̷͖͋ṯ̷̞̾̓̆h̷͎͍͑̄e̵̥̲͇̔ ̴̦͋̀͝v̶͍̬̺̕o̴̢̲͠i̸̥̖̣̓̃d̵̗̺͉͝.̴͚̭̯̓

《》《》《》

Oh yeah, epic purgatory time.

Basically I imagine purgatory is actually the 'last resort', where things are stored when they don't really have a place to go, but can't be lost to the void either. Like souls and timelines, since both exist and always will exist, but can't be forgotten. That's how Sans and Frisk remember resets, if the timelines were lost to the void then they would be forgotten like W.D Gaster was (Although Sans' determination allows him to bypass this and remember the scientist, as it would Frisk, if the timelines technically never happened then). So the timelines are a part of the universe, but can't ever be relived but can be remembered by determined souls. For Frisk, when they reset, they're really just resetting the world like a disc. They put in a new, clean disc to play a new timeline on and throw the old timeline into purgatory. That also includes timelines from different universes, like how I included UnderSwap with Papyrus in the judgement hall. The fifth dimensional layer of reality is of AUs, so every single alternate timeline that has ever happened all gets thrown into purgatory.

Also, I added a lot of easter eggs in this, so I'll point them all out.

"The pyramids being built, a woman who resembled the art of Cleopatra sitting above them, her hand hovering next to a glowing yellow star" Is Cleopatra, who was able to reset because there was less amount of people on earth when she ruled, but she was the last known one before Frisk because how many more people were born.

"A person dressed in old rags, clutching an infant to their chest as they stared up at a large demon figure" Is the first person who made a deal with Zalgo in the tribe who made the books about the language and spells of the runes.

"One moment he was walking through some type of old town, buildings burning in the distance as vintage looking people ran about, screaming" Is what happened after the deal to the tribe that made the deals with Zalgo, they all ended up dying because of the deal he made for all of their souls.

The humans who trapped monsters underground weren't magical humans, they were humans who made deals with Zalgo to have the power of the runes to trap monsters underground, but ultimately died afterwards because he took their souls. Never make a deal with Zalgo pretty much.

"Another person dressed in rags, bones showing through their fur as they huddled next to a dead body, distant sounds of marching taking place as they frantically tried to press in the air, to no avail" Is someone during World War ll who learned about resets from stories and were trying desperately to reset to save everyone who's died, but they couldn't.

"Two people standing next to a broken through window, hands held together as smoke bellowed out from behind them, determination sparkling through their souls."Are people from 9/11 who jumped from the building.

"Sans, standing alone in the judgement hall underground as the world faded around him and his once blue jacket turned white" Is Geno Sans.

"Papyrus, wearing an orange hoodie as he too stood in the judgement hall, a blue bandanna grasped in his hands as he turned towards the other side as footsteps approached" Is UnderSwap Papyrus about to face off to Chara.

"A glitched skeleton sitting alone in the void, rocking back and forth as his blue string wrapped digits scratched at his face while he cackled in his insanity of loneliness" Is Error Sans who is stuck in the void.

"Black tentacles sprouting from the back of a skeleton" Is Nightmare Sans.

A few of them are references to some of my other work that has already been published, and a few others are references to some of my work that has yet to be published. One day, Doctor Who x Undertale Crossover, one day (haha it's finally out YES) ... So you guys can have fun trying to figure out what future books I have planned to publish.

And the remaining are hints about the ending of this book. I'll leave it open for you guys to make theories about.

Have fun :)