"Clever."

You woke with a start, pulling from the land of dreams to once more be encompassed in the world of the living, or were you really just waking up from one life to live out the next? You weren't really sure what was going through your mind, why you had awoken in such a frenzy and such a panic, for already the plot of your strange dream was beginning to fade from your mind, existing once and never to be remembered again.

You looked around your cold green catacomb, the tiled prison with the cracks in the wall that you had lived inside your entire life. You liked the cracks in the wall, the way that they seemed to symbolise that nothing was infallible, that even the strongest and tallest of giants could eventually wither into ash and dust. There was so sign of the voice that had just spoken and you dismissed it as a part of your waking dream.

In the corner of the cell, there lay two skeletons, two skeletons whom you had allowed into your mind and heart, saw them now as living creatures than objects. And for that you were determined to protect them, even if it cost your life, for you were quite certain that you could not handle losing another close to you.

You inched closer to the two skeletons who unlike you, were still lost within their dreams. The strange feelings from your fading dream had not yet worn off and you looked at these two skeletons with a strange taste in your mouth, some strange emotion (was it guilt?) as you looked upon them. Though you could have sworn that you had only seen them last night, a part of you felt as if you hadn't seen them in aeons.

Dead, a voice in your mind whispered. Nothing more than ash and dust that blew away on the passing breeze. There was so much dust that you thought it might have snowed even in Hotlands.

But then the voice in your mind faded just as your dream did, leaving behind only a conflict of confused and wondering emotions in its wake. It was strange, how you felt now, as if a part of your brain had been cut out from your mind and no matter how hard you tried to brush against the hidden memories, no matter how much you sat in this darkened cell and tried to comb the deepest depths of your mind, you could not reach these memories, you could not remember the person you had once been or might be.

Even then the feeling was familiar, this feeling of not knowing your past, of having your memories cut out of your mind like they had never been there at all. You were sure that at some time in some place, you had once walked this land, the land outside this cell, without any memory of who you had once been.

That was probably the scariest part, the way that your mind could so easily be reshaped and reformed, the way that your memories could be grafted from your mind, the way your entire life could be remolded into a different person.

But none of your temporary bout of existentialism mattered for here you were, stuck inside this underground laboratory with two skeletons that had about as much hope for escaping as you did. None at all. Maybe that was for the best, you thought. Even if you were stuck inside this tomb where the three of you would probably die before anyone in the world of monsters learned of your existences, the two skeletons were alive, the flames and whispers of life that existed in a world that was so determined to extinguish them into nothingness.

"(Y/n)?" Sans stirred from the spot where he had been sleeping, moving slightly away from his brother to get a better view of you in the dim lighting of the laboratory. You had no concept of the passing of time within these walls, but you were pretty sure it was nighttime, whenever the scientist that held the three of you prisoner decided to dim out the lights and retreat into a restless slumber. "Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?" You chuckled darkly, looking over your shoulder into the dark of the laboratory, wondering what dangers could be hidden there. You felt the hair on the back of your neck prickle as you gazed into the hearts of the shadows that circled around you, always watching, always waiting.

There was always something in the dark. There was always something watching and waiting in the shadow, some unseen enemy that was lying in wait, ready to snatch and take away everything that you had worked so hard to earn.

"I can't sleep," Sans muttered, sitting down next to you as he watched his brother sleep on, unbothered by what was going on around him. That was probably the most remarkable thing about Papyrus, you realised, the way he could so naturally take anything negative thrown his way and craft it into something good. "I had a really weird dream."

That bit caught you unawares, the mentioning of a strange dream that did not belong in your mind, the way it seemed to be a glimpse into the perhaps near future, prophecy more than fiction, then again, what was the difference?

"I had something like that too," you mumbled and attempted to comb your mind for the details, desperate to remember something, anything about the dream that was so hell-bent on escaping your waking memories. "It's strange, though, how it feels like I can almost remember the dream, like it's always one step ahead of me no matter how fast I run to catch it. And even then, I can't shake this feeling that something's wrong, that I wasn't really here, in this laboratory I mean. It feels like I was somewhere else and I was just - "

"Transported here," Sans finished. "Yeah, I know what you mean. The funny thing is, I remember what we did yesterday, but those memories feel false, like they were coded into my head. I feel like I was somewhere else, somewhere other than here. But how can that be possible? We barely leave this cell, let alone the laboratory."

"Do you remember anything from your dream?" You asked the skeleton.

"Not really," Sans replied, eyesockets dark and devoid of all life and meaning. "I remember being in this house, I think, though I don't know where. I remember waiting, waiting for someone, and then there was so much pain. I think I died."

"Died?" Your voice rose an octave, not wanting to picture any of the two skeletons crumbling into a pile of dust, leaving the world of the living, not when you had sworn upon your life's blood that you would protect them. You weren't sure if you could keep on living should the two of them die, if you could hold yourself together after losing more people that were close to you. "It's just a dream, Sans. Whatever it was, it wasn't real. Besides, you're alive, your brother is alive, I'm alive and we're all here together. I won't let anything happen to us, I swear."

But the two of you knew that this was not true, that it never would be true. Because each and every day was a day filled with new horrors and new tortures as the scientist that held you prisoner conducted a wonderful array of experiments on the three of you. Any day could be the day where something went wrong, where the scientist perhaps cut a little deeper than he meant to and sent someone spiraling into oblivion, cradled in the arms of death for the first and last time.

You were certain, however, that you would not mess up this time. You weren't sure what your dream or Sans' had been about, if it had been some glimpse into a past life where you had failed, where you had not been able to protect the skeletons that you swore you would guard with your life, or if it was nothing more than the ravings of a mad man. But say it was, say it was a glimpse into a life that you had lived that knew nothing more than chaos and sorrow, than this was your second chance, here in this laboratory. You would not mess up this time and nothing could stand in your way.

As you allowed Sans to rest his head on your shoulder, your gaze flickered up to the cracks in the tile wall, the cracks that were reminders that nothing lasted forever, that the giants and gods that threw themselves in your way were all capable of death, all capable of being ground into ash and dust.

And if that was true, if mountains and gods and cold green tile walls could all share the same fate wrapped in death, than what chance did a scientist stand against the testament of time?

Entry ???

I am not sure what entry number this is.

I am not sure how many times I have written this entry or how many times I have lived the same life over and over again. But if there is one thing for certain, I remember.

I remember the human, the human Kris whom lived inside these walls, the human with whom I so vainly made an alliance with in hopes of gaining wisdom and insight as to how to free the rest of monsterkind from the Underground. But I was a fool in thinking that the human did not have other plans, that Kris would not wait for the moment in which they could best me.

And best me they did, for the damned creature seized my mind and soul at my weakest, my most vulnerable time, made me a puppet inside my own consciousness and body. I remember our combined consciousnesses bathed in flame from the human that also lives inside these walls, remember watching as the last of our life's energy faded away and we were removed from the face of existence in this universe, not one living creature ever remembering that we had once existed.

But then we had latched onto the vessel of a human child by the name of Frisk, ejected their soul and took their body as our own. I did learn much from the brief time when my mind was with Kris and inside the human Frisk's. Apparently this human that we had taken over, Frisk, had ventured throughout the Underground thousands of times before, slaughtering or freeing my people whenever they felt like it, an endless cycle that they ruled as god.

But that had changed when we took over Frisk's mind, when we shifted the balance so that we had controlled the power of the reset, the power over the timeline of this universe. I remember carving our way through the Underground with flesh and blood and chaos and suffering. I remember watching whole towns burn and civilisations perish underneath our might.

I remember (Y/n) in the hall of judgement, battling them for what felt like an eternity until they had finally gained the upper hand, finally taken my soul that was merged with Kris' and split it in two. But then they were faced with an impossible choice for they had only the strength and time to eliminate one soul completely from existence, to either banish Kris into the Void or remove me from all existence.

And in the end (Y/n) had chosen to destroy Kris' soul, to remove it from this timeline completely so that when they did reset, Kris would no longer be in the picture. Everything would go back to normal as it always was meant to be.

But that's just the problem!

Even with Kris gone, even with the daemon eradicated forever from this universe, that means that the human Frisk will fall down here in a few months time, that they will wander through the Underground and most likely slaughter everyone, damning us to forever rot inside our underground tomb. Monsterkind will never have the opportunity to feel the warmth of the sun once more on their backs, to know what it was like to once share the Surface with humans as their equals.

It becomes clear then that I must put as much effort as possible into my experiments, to create a seventh human soul that the Barrier will accept, to break the very thing that keeps us trapped down here before this human falls down here and slaughters everyone. Whatever conflict, whatever was keeping me before in the past from doing what I must do now, it must be put aside. Even if what I am doing is wrong, even if these test subjects are actually alive and conscious even when I try so hard to think that they are not, I cannot let that bother me now.

Should it really be that hard to see that the suffering of a few unlucky souls is nothing compared to the suffering of the masses, that a few have to get dragged in the mud so that the rest of monsterkind can eventually walk free? Even a child could see the true answer, the only answer.

I know that my experiments work, that there's success from my long line of failures. I remember that from the previous timeline as well, I remember watching as 2-P became a lifeless shell, ready and strong enough to contain the human's soul. I just have to do that again, to scoop out his consciousness and stick the human's soul inside him. If the Barrier doesn't accept him after that, than perhaps we are really destined to rot here in the dark while a human slaughters us into infinity.

I am not sure why I remember any of this, why the memories are still fresh and clear in my mind. I am convinced that neither the human nor the others remember any of what happened, if so, it will be nothing more than a waking dream as far as they are concerned. Perhaps it was because of the way my consciousness had once been intertwined with Kris', allowing a part of my memory to forever be preserved.

Whatever the reason, none of that matters now. The way is clear, the path set. No matter the cost, no matter what it takes, I will see this until the end.

There are not many religions within the Underground itself, for how could one believe in a god when we have been through so much suffering? If there was some divine entity, than they are cruel and unkind and are not worthy of our devotion.

But there is one religion, not practiced by many other than a select few in Waterfall, that believe that when a monster dies, they will have to carry the souls of anyone that they wronged upon their back as they climb up a mountain.

I do not know if this is true, many religions are always bickering with one another over who is right and who is wrong.

But upon my death, if I do find myself upon a mountain forced to carry the dozens of souls of those who had been brutally mutilated and burned within my experiments, perhaps they will be kind.