Prologue: Above Underground

SHIP: 229. Location: Above UNDERGROUND.

Larrs took another drink of his coffee as he stared at his screen. "This will never work. He never strikes FRISK until it commits genocide."

"Reset again."

"What's the use? This plan isn't working." Larrs looked over toward Frank. "He does not strike unless FRISK is completely crazy with LOVE. Even when the mission does succeed, the Monster just completely destroys him. No compassion."

"Well, what do you expect?" Frank added as he rubbed his head. "FRISK is down there, annihilating everything the Monster knows and loves? Hello. I wouldn't let it go either. Larrs, pour me some of that coffee. This is going to be another all-nighter."

"When FRISK is decent though, he has no reason to strike it," Larrs reminded Frank as he poured him some coffee. "We've been through this, that doesn't work either. We've done this how many times? 300? 400? Been here half a year on this project alone."

"That's true," Frank agreed as he took some coffee for himself. "At least the Frisks inside FRISK gets a sanity break. Don't forget, there's real people inside that thing."

Larrs groaned as he glared at Frank. "He's not going to strike FRISK if it's good. Hell, he helps the damn thing out when it's good! But that Monster is not going to let anything go if it's causing genocide. Shit, Frank, we have a better chance of the conduit running away."

"He won't run away," Frank reminded him. "You know the process. Alone it's too small, can't walk well, can't talk well, yada yada. Not for a little while and he'd be blasted to kingdom come before he even uttered anything."

"Yeah," Larrs half agreed but winked at Frank. "If momma survived though, she'd save him. Frisk has a lot of DETERMINATION. Lowly human, but she'd take that Monster on for it."

"Forget it, I don't care," Frank muttered. "It's been half a year! The timelines may differ radically depending on what Dannick does from in FRISK, but it always comes down to the same damn thing. Set the Monster to start remembering."

"What? Whoah. Wait, whenever we do that, it never works out. Monsters go insane, and before you know it, they start … only half existing." Larrs rubbed his eyes. "It's not going to work, and we are going to lose our one shot at this."

"We've seen it for half a year. I'm tired of being up here, and you are tired of being up here. Setting it on reset is not going to do anything new."

"The Monster remembers on its own though enough," Larrs reminded Frank as he yawned. "How many times have we seen him do that judging thing against FRISK? Know something that he shouldn't. Recognize something's wrong."

"It's just a look, man. It's just got some weird ability to see inside. Some of the old classic Monsters do that weird shit, you know that. It doesn't really remember anything. Maybe it's like a déjà vu or something to it because of some glitch in the software too. I really don't care at this point. Project UNDERTALE would be under lackeys if it wasn't so damn important." Frank leaned against the wall, staring at the latest battle against Sans the Skeleton. "It's hard, man. This is it, this is all we need to take it all down. To free humanity again. Just this." He pointed at the screen. "Just crack this."

"If something happens to that Monster. Just like the other times, Frank …"

"It won't be the strongest, but there are other choices. Hell, we could get King Asgore for it if we needed to."

"That'd kill it. It'd be incompatible, you know that! Forgot our jobs, they'd kill us if we killed it."

"Alright, fine." Larrs pressed in some buttons. "Twenty rounds of memory?"

"Fifty, I would think."

"Fifty could break the mind. By ten, they start to commit suicide to try and escape reset."

"I've seen some go thirty rounds before they start pulling things together enough. It just depends on the Monster. Look, Sans the Skeleton is a knock-knock joke kick-back guy. I wouldn't expect that for at least fifty resets. Maybe sixty. So, forty?"

"Fine, let's start with forty. We'll watch the Monster's progress and decide whether to up or lower it."

"Either way, we need to put in less genocide. All the Frisks are going to start getting suspicious that the real mission isn't to get to the surface."

"What do I look like, someone who can talk to PERSEVERANCE? They are all on their own, as always. Don't worry. The leader's got DETERMINATION like none I've seen before."

"Sure, but we should still consider wiping out another part of their memories. Forty sessions maybe? We can't let them crack, and they are around … seventy? Shouldn't we erase soon?"

"Mmmmm … we'll watch her."

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