The Fallen Player

Chapter 2 Through the Ruins

Asriel and I left the first room where I had fallen as my eyes scanned the next area. All around the edge of the room was pitch black. The only light that helped us see more clearly was smack dab in the middle. We could see the pinkish-purple door in the distance. Suddenly, my body froze while Asriel pressed forward. Under the sunbeam, shining down on the small patch of grass, I spotted a glitched-out Flowey. Asriel overlooked this glitch I've witnessed, turning back at me, tilting his head, questioning, "What's wrong?"

Flowey disappeared right after Asriel walked through him. "You...didn't see that just now, did you?"

Asriel looked around, trying to figure out what I saw. "No? What did you see?"

I shook my head and started to follow him again. "N...nothing, Let's keep going...." To change the subject, I then added, "You were saying? With your idea on how I can get out of the game?"

Asriel stared at me for a few seconds until he snapped out of it, "Oh...yeah, well....do you remember the part in the game when you and Frisk obtained Sans's room key?"

We both stopped at the entrance that would get us to the next stage, the Ruins. Before we both adventured in, I spoke, "Yeah, why?" As soon as I questioned it, my brain clicked, remembering the time machine behind Sans and Papyrus's house. "Oh, that time machine of Sans's? But isn't it broken?" I remember reading up on the Undertale lore; how Sans could be a time cop and tried to use that machine to prevent certain things from happening.

"Yes, but you could wake the machine up with your skill and make it work again!"

"My skill?"

"Yeah. With that strong soul and determination of yours. We can see if the time machine will work by you touching it. Then once it works, It can bring you back into your world!" Asriel theorized.

"Hmm, we could give it a shot." I smiled, following him into the next room. Arriving in the Ruins, the game's tutorial, we passed by the red leaves and were about to head up the stairs. To my surprise, my eyes spotted a glitched-out Toriel. I gasped out, and my eyes went wide, having Asriel look puzzled again. I scoff and cry out, "Come on, you really don't see her?!"

Asriel looks around, shrugging his shoulders. "No. What do you see?"

I take a deep breath watching the glitched Toriel leave through the door draped with vines. "I saw Toriel but glitched out. She was fading in and out until she disappeared into the next room." Asriel whipped his head around, trying to glance at what I saw, but to no avail. I then theorize, "Maybe the game did a true reset?"

"But that's impossible! I would have been reset along with it and had changed back into a flower, not remembering anything."

"But if the game is glitching out, maybe you are too?" I pondered, rubbing my chin as I looked all over to see if any more glitches occurred along the walls. Unfortunately, I saw nothing else glitched. It seemed that only the characters were affected.

"Let me know if you see any more glitches occurring, alright?" Asriel pleaded.

"Will do," I reply as I follow him up the stairs and into the next room. I spotted the first puzzle of buttons on the floor that opened the door to the next stage completed. Pressed either by the glitched-out Toriel just now or pressed long before I arrived. I couldn't tell. I didn't think it mattered, so I ignored it and followed Asriel to the next stage, entering it with the second puzzle waiting for us, but they were also finished. I finally spoke out. "Asriel.... stupid question, but.... these puzzles.... They've been finished long ago, right? When Frisk arrived in the Underground?"

"Of course! Why do you ask?"

"It's just freaking me out. It feels as if two playthroughs are happening both simultaneously in my eyes. Do you think this will be an issue for your world and prevent me from returning home?"