Frisk blinked open their eyes. For a second, they were confused, wondering why they were lying on a bunch of flowers. Then, they remembered.
They jumped to their feet and immediately set off down the hall until they were face to face with-
"Flowey!" Frisk shouted in delight, quickly moving towards the flower. He backed away from them with a concerned expression on his face.
"Uh, howdy?" He said carefully, trying hard to keep a happy expression. "Yeah, my name is Flowey. Uh, welcome to the Underground?"
For a moment, Frisk frowned. Flowey didn't seem to recognize them. That was only supposed to happen with a true reset. Then again, they supposed that since the timeline had been destroyed, it made sense. They smiled, happy to play along with Flowey's game. Flowey continued his act of kindness for some time, before finally revealing his true intentions with a circle of bullets which surrounded Frisk. Just as the circle was about to close in on their soul, a large fireball appeared and blasted Flowey away.
"What a miserable creature! Torturing such a poor, innocent youth!"
Frisk grinned in relief as Toriel walked over to them. She was back. Flowey was back. Everything that had gone wrong was okay now.
Frisk practically flew through the Ruins. With all their previous resets and experience, making their way through the catacombs was much easier. Before they knew it, they were already pushing open the door into the rest of the underground. The same chilly air and mysterious atmosphere enveloped them as they trekked out through the forest. The only thing that had changed was the fact that neither of the skelebros were anywhere to be seen. This worried Frisk, but was also a slight relief seeing as they could now progress with much more speed. Finally, they managed to reach Sans and Papyrus's house in Snowdin.
Frisk reached up and without even considering to knock, they opened the door and walked inside. Sans was sitting on the table, the Doctor was pacing around the front of the room, and lying on the couch, completely unconscious, was W. D. Gaster.
"heya, kiddo," Sans said, "you reset."
Frisk nodded and looked down at Gaster with a concerned expression.
"he'll be fine," Sans said, "just a bit exhausted. returning to reality isn't an easy feat, you know."
"I'm sorry," The Doctor interrupted, "But what exactly happened? One second and I'm trying to keep all of reality from ripping apart, and the next I'm standing here."
"It was a reset," Frisk responded simply, "I moved us all to a different timeline where reality wasn't breaking apart. If I hadn't, we'd have all been thrown into the void."
"So you manipulated time? That's- That's interesting..."
Frisk shrugged. "Hey sans," they said, "Where's Papyrus?"
"i sent him off to undyne. figured you'd want to get here quickly and that might be difficult with him trying to capture you."
Frisk supposed this made sense. Papyrus probably would have had a metaphorical heart attack if he had seen both them and the Doctor. Before Frisk could reply, a loud cough came from the couch. Everyone immediately turned their attention to the sofa where Gaster was stirring. He blinked his eyes and closed them again with a painful expression on his face.
"Ugh. I'm going to need some serious painkillers for this."
His voice was low, and somewhat rough. As he spoke, two light blue hands, each resembling his own with one hole in each, began signing along with what he said. Sans grinned and walked over to the skeleton with a glass of water.
"how are you feeling, g?" He asked, handing him the water.
"Horrible," Gaster responded, accepting the water with a yawn. "I think-" His eyelids started dropping again. "I'm just gonna-" and he immediately fell back asleep again.
"he'll be like that for a while," Sans said, taking the remaining water and setting it on the table. "it's not gonna be easy getting any coherent information outta him for the next few days."
Frisk smiled and walked over to Gaster. "You used to work with him, right Sans?"
"yep. we were trying to figure out what all the cracks were about. we never guessed that he was the one doing it all along."
"No, I guess not," Frisk said with a yawn. This last reset really took a lot of effort and it was slowly catching up to them. They curled up next to the couch and let their eyelids drop. Before they even knew it, they were asleep.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Doctor looked up at the ceiling full of stars one last time. He couldn't stay here. He knew that. There was another universe that needed his help. Maybe it was time to stop running from all the events that had happened in the past few years and face them instead.
The TARDIS stood in front of him, glowing softly in the dim light of the Underground. After teleporting away from the broken timeline, it had landed itself here. Right next to Sans and Papyrus's house. The Doctor stuffed his hand in his pocket and pulled out the key. As he inserted it into the lock, he heard a voice from behind him.
"leaving so soon?"
The Doctor turned around. Sans was standing in the snow, just a few feet away from him, his expression unreadable.
"Yeah," The Doctor said, running his fingers through his hair, "I need to go. I've got a whole other universe to protect. You know, the usual. Aliens and stuff."
Sans chuckled a little. "and you weren't even going to say goodbye, huh?"
The Doctor didn't respond.
"i don't blame ya," Sans continued, "if i was leaving forever, i'd spare myself the pain of saying goodbye also. but," He smiled a little. It wasn't exactly a happy smile, or even a very friendly one. "from the look on your face, i take it this isn't the first time you've had to leave friends behind, huh?"
The Doctor remained silent. For a moment, they both just stood there, listening to the wind blowing through the trees and the happy laughter of Snowdin Town. Eventually, Sans spoke again.
"eh. don't worry about it doc. we'll take care of this world. you just take care of yourself, okay? 'cuz there are people here who really care about you."
"...Bye Sans."
"i won't be seeing you,"
The Doctor stepped into the TARDIS, glancing back at the Underground with a small smile on his face. Eventually, the doors closed and the blue box disappeared into the darkness.
-----------------------------------------------------------
And that is the end of Timelines! Thank you all so much for reading this book. I really hope you all had just as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Your support gave me the determination I needed to keep going and every comment I got filled me with happiness!
So really, thanks.
~introverted-actress :)