Undertale - A Second Chance

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

Later that day, all the tents had been rolled up and put away and the cars were reloaded with their gear. Ray was standing next to Asriel, the two Wanderers keeping their voices low. They were talking about where they would live.

"Frisk lives with Mom, so she already has someone to keep her company..." Ray had started.

"...but Mom would be really upset if I didn't stay close to her. I am her natural kid, anyway."

Ray smirked. Asriel asked, "What?"

"Kid...Goat...~?" Ray winked and Asriel groaned but still smiled. Ever since Ray had re-learned about goats in the Overland from Sans and Toriel, he had been assaulting Asriel with goat related puns due to their similar morphology.

"Oh my God, Ray..." He groaned with a barely held back smile.

Ray smiled at another successful joke but his smile left him as he remembered that he and Asriel still had a hard choice ahead of them and were no closer to finding a solution.

Asriel continued, "Dad, however, has no one with him...He may feel pretty lonely especially if we're here and we don't stay with him."

Ray nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah...worse of all, he might convince himself that he deserves it..."

Asriel and Ray fell silent as they reminisced on Sans' bringing up to date of current events that first morning they had gotten up.

They had woken up early, before everyone else, and, seeing Sans, had started opening up to him about their timeline...they had told him almost everything and he, in turn, had told them just as much.

Asgore and the deaths of the Human Children were one of the many topics that he notified them of. They had been crestfallen, especially Ray. Ray couldn't believe that his Father had...What if one of those children was this timeline's version of him!? Would his father had killed someone, who, in another time, would have been his son??

He had voiced this concern to Sans, but the Skeleton had assured Ray that seeing him in person in the grove with Asriel was 100% for sure the first time he had been seen by the monsters and he had never fallen down in this timeline.

Now, in the sunlit former campsite, Ray and Asriel were beginning to decide that they should stay with Asgore. The two began to make plans for the two to do so when Asriel started and remembered something that seemed to trouble him.

"What is it, bro?"

"Frisk..."

"What about her?"

Asriel looked at where he could see Frisk, talking to Alphys and Undyne about something.

"She'll want me to be with her and Mom..."

Ray realized that he had forgotten completely about what they had been told about Frisk...and Flowey.

That was another, even harder pill to swallow that day: The Story of Asriel and the First Fallen Child.

This story seemed to be the cause of most of the pain and grief wrought throughout the underground and Asriel was shaking at the end of Sans' account, ending with the final goodbye the temporarily renewed Child Asriel had said to Frisk in that Void Between Timelines. Frisk had apparently told Sans everything. Asriel cried at this and promised himself that he would be there for Frisk when she needed him. Frisk's crying embrace later that day had cemented this in Asriel's mind.

Ray, remembering this, looked at Frisk and was looking at just the right time to see her try to steal another look at the Two Wanderers. When she saw that she was already being glanced at and her attempt at a covert look was immediately busted, she looked away quickly, blushed and tried to diffuse the awkwardness of the situation by walking over to

Toriel's side, acting like she was only looking for her.

Ray looked towards Asriel and said, "You're right...She'll want you there...She'll need you."

"So, we're going with Mom?"

Ray shook his head in exasperation, "I don't know. What we said about Dad is still true...We couldn't stay with both unless we separated..."

Ray and Asriel looked at each other and without a word knew that that was unthinkable, at least, not so soon after...

Frisk may have needed Asriel but so did Ray and Asriel needed him close by too.

Therefore, even after their discussion, the two still weren't sure what to do.

\

Sans had been sitting just behind the two and, although he couldn't make out the entire conversation, could tell what Asriel and Ray were debating over.

He quietly got up and walked over to Frisk who had just started walking towards Toriel. Sans pulled up close to the teenaged Ambassador and said, "hey kid, you got time for a quick chat?"

\

Later, once everything had been placed in order, Frisk called Ray and Asriel over to where she was standing with Toriel. She also called for Asgore to come close too.

Asgore, with an unsure glance towards Toriel, stepped up as well.

Frisk looked at the group around her and said with a smile, "We're gonna have everyone at our place for the next few days to celebrate you two being here. Asriel, you and Ray will be staying at me and Mom's house."

Ray and Asriel looked at each other with a mix of acceptance and guilt and seemed about to say something when Frisk suddenly said, "And Asgore will be staying, too. In the Spare Room."

Asgore seemed surprised by this yet also seemed still unsure of his reception.

Toriel, one could tell, was definitely surprised at this and less than fully pleased. However, with a quiet sigh, she accepted that it was, perhaps, the right thing to do to help welcome Asriel back home. She decided to allow the arrangement for a few days.

Asriel perked up when he heard his father would be staying with them and, if only for a short time, his family would be back together again.

Ray shared this emotion and breathed a sigh of relief and grinned gratefully.

Frisk looked at Ray and addressed him directly.

"Don't forget, you still haven't finished your story."

Ray's heart skipped a beat. The Story. Oh...He had been so happy being reunited with his friends and family that he had put the Story away in the back of his mind. Secretly, he had partly wished that he had gotten away with telling the rest of the story. It was a long and almost embarrassing process for him and he wasn't looking forward to the climax of the story...

However, on the outside, Ray laughed it off and said amiably enough, "Haha, right, of course."

After this was said, all the groups of monsters that would go their own separate ways said their temporary farewells. It was well-known that they would see each other again fairly soon. But they said goodbye to everyone all the same.

Then the groups took off: Undyne and Alphys, Papyrus and Sans, and then the Dreemurrs...All Five of them.

The cars sped off, leaving Ebbot alone once again to stand watch over the desolate land. The River flowed on. The trees sighed in the wind. The clouds wheeled overhead.

Another time of peace until the next visitors arrive...