Hope was the thing of the past, a memory long since extinguished. Gaster was the true god of this world, the ultimate and complete ruler over this realm. With the push of a button, with a single thought could he rewrite everyone and everything. Memories and experiences were nothing for they were only pieces of tangible pieces of code that could be manipulated and rewritten. You had begun to think that perhaps your experiences with Error were false, that they were nothing more than false memories placed into your mind for Gaster's own sadistic amusement.

You wondered why the damn demon hadn't killed you yet, why Gaster was so entertained watching you turn on your friends, rewriting their minds and their physical forms until they were a completely new being entirely.

"Error, you can fight this!"

The words meant nothing to the glitch of the comedian for not a trace of you existed within his mind. Your experiences, your past, everything had been wiped from Error's mind and for the first time you caught a glimpse of the dementia that ravaged inside his mind, a glimpse into what Error had been like before his truce with Ink, before he had sacrificed a half of his soul so that you might live.

"You're a glitch," he snarled, taking a step towards you. "Did you know that? You're nothing more than a piece of code that's programmed to think that it can feel things, but we are nothing more than a string of numbers. Consider this a thank you gift." The comedian swiped his hand down and summoned a wave of black blasters, their jaws parted as the deadly laser formed within them. You reached into the corners of your mind and prodded against the reserve of magic tucked away with you, feeling the energy surge through every part of you as the magic burst through and filled you.

As the blasters fired, you interlocked your hands together and a translucent [F/C] membrane shot from your palms and surrounded you, deflecting the beams of black energy. For a moment it seemed that the world had gone dark as the black magic engulfed you, the [F/C} shield darkening as Error's attack released its fury onto you. When the magic had finally parted did you wave away the shield and bring forth a spear into your hands, your fingers clenched white against the humming hilt.

The tip of the spear followed Error as he ran towards you, cackling in sadistic glee as his hands cane alive with black flame, the magic crackling lightning that pulsed from his fingertips. He unleashed the flame at you, giving you only seconds to react as you brought forth a smaller shield in your left hand, deflecting the lightning back at him. The glitched comedian let forth a howl of laughter and bounded out of sight, his caterwaul never ceasing.

It's all a game, you reassured yourself and tightened your hold on the spear, never once letting it go. Even if one of us die here today, Gaster will bring us back with a flicker of thought and this will only repeat over and over again until he grows bored and finally eradicates us from all of time and space.

A circle of blasters once more surrounded you, jaws parting in preparation to once more unleash their fury. You waved away the spear and interlocked your fingers, firing off pulses of [F/C} flame that soared through the air with delicate ease, striking each of the blasters and sending them crashing to the ground, alive with the [F/C] flame that slowly ate away at their coding.

There was an odd tug within the back of your mind, urging, screaming at you to move to the left. Following the instruction, you sidestepped to the left and whirled around, grabbing Error by the wrist as he attempted to slam a knife into where you had been standing only milliseconds ago, taken slightly by surprise by your sudden reflex as you tightened your hold on his wrist and slammed the skeleton to the ground.

"I'm truly sorry," you whispered under your breath and summoned the spear, driving the point into the base of his skull, looking away as the comedian withered away into dust.

"Excellent work."

Without moment, without hesitation, a guttural scream tore through your lungs and you thrust the spear towards Gaster's heart, wanting more than anything to kill, wanting to make him watch as you slowly cut him apart piece by piece. But with a mere thought, Gaster flicked his hand and you were frozen in midair, the sneer still on your features, the spear still clutched in your grasp.

"I find it quite entertaining," Gaster mused, leaning back slightly, "how this determination, this desire to persist even when all odds are stacked up against you, still burns inside of you. You have done this hundreds of times now to the point where it has become almost robotic, danced the fight with that anomaly and watched him wither away into ash as if he was nothing, for he is nothing and so are you. For with a single wish I could make it that way, I could wipe you and him from the face of all existence and no one would remember. Isn't that terrifying?"

Perhaps it was best you were frozen for the string of insults and profanities that were at the tip of your tongue were truly a fury of their own. "But this has grown to prove a bore," Gaster sighed, the tips of his fingers brushing against the purple Overwrite button that followed him like a loyal companion wherever he went. "However it would be curious..."

And he brought down a fist on the button, the world and surroundings slowly melting away into their was nothing. And you felt the familiar feeling again, that tug within the back of your skull as the powers of the Overwrite button went to work, rewriting and reshaping your memories, carving away at yourself until something entirely new was left behind. But you wouldn't forget, you wouldn't allow Gaster to win, you refused to allow him that victory!

But the memories, the glimpses into your past were already fading, liquid water in your grasp as you tried to reach for them, fading in and out of existence until there was nothing. You felt barren, exposed in this world of white as Gaster went to work creating whatever new hell he had designed for you to endure, manipulating the coding as easily as a god would. For he was a god and nothing lived to defeat him.

You couldn't remember past this moment, the one happening right now. All previous glimpses into your life were eradicated. Maybe you had been here since the beginning of time and would stay here for the rest of your miserable life, the only living thing in all of reality. But slowly, piece by piece, false memories of a false past and a false life slowly fit together within your mind. But it wasn't real, it wasn't! This was the work of Gaster!

"My name is [Y/N]!" The howl tore from your lips as you wrapped your fingers around your head, punching against your temples in a vain attempt to drive the memories that Gaster was coding into your mind. You struggled to scream the phrase again, but your name no longer came to you, a destroyed memory that no longer existed. Confusion washed over you as you were thrown into the Void.

"Frisk!"

You turned around, recognizing your name. Ink came running towards you, the paintbrush clasped in his hands. "We've found him," the artist gasped, the two irises within his eyesockets transforming into red exclamation marks. "Fresh and the others were able to detain Error, it was a bloody battle and we lost several of the others." You mentally cursed, wishing that this war between Ink and Error would come to a damn close already. So many had perished within the fights and now it finally seemed the war was reaching its ultimate conclusion.

"I'll deal with the damn glitch," you snarled and waved your hand, a red dagger taking shape in your dominant hand.

You threw open the entrance to the tent and beheld the sight in front of you, the enemy you had fought years against, the enemy you had strived to put a knife into since the beginning of your futile existence. Error was bound to a pole, fighting against the restraints that held him prisoner.

"Do you know why you're here?" you asked, staring into the glow of the red knife, feeling the hum of the magic inside resonate with your core. "You've slaughtered thousands, eradicated countless universes without a care, destroyed almost half the multiverse in your sadistic quest for power. But that ends now, do you understand? You have lost my comedian and nothing you say or do can change your fate today."

"[Y/N]?" Error asked, cocking his head to one side. You looked over your shoulder, wondering if another had entered only to find that you were alone. Was it possible the comedian was talking to you? Anger, hatred and loathing manifested all at once. This glitch knew your damn name and yet he was still playing this arrogant façade of his, laughing still even when his death was at hand. "What are we doing here? I remember facing Gaster and then everything went dark after that..." His eyes darkened at whatever imaginary scenario he was talking about.

"Gaster?" You searched your mind wondering why the name was so familiar but found nothing. "There's no Gaster and there is no [Y/N], only us comedian."

It seemed that the glitch truly did not understand. "Your name is [Y/N]," he protested, struggling against the restraints. "Why are we wasting our time with this, we have to kill him! Let me go!"

The flap to the tent opened and Ink walked in, his face reflecting every ounce of hatred and disgust for the bound-up skeleton. Error looked upon the painter with a look of profound horror that it stirred something deep inside of you, reviving some memory that you too should be turning this knife upon Ink. But why would you do such a thing? The two of you had fought alongside in battle for years as you waged war against Error, he had even saved your life more times than you could count.

"Now's the chance, kill him [Y/N]!" Error screeched, thrashing against his restraints.

"Kill Ink?" You scoffed at the prospect, wondering just how off the edge the anomaly was. "Why would I do such a thing? You're the only one that's going to die today, do you understand that? Or is your skull so thick that you still fail to understand? Nothing you say or do can alter the course of events that will happen today. We're going to be free of you Error, I'm going to save all of us." You brought the red knife over your head, preparing to bring it down upon his skull.

But there was something else screaming inside of you, thrashing and wailing against the thought of killing the comedian. It made no sense, there was no aspect of you that felt anything towards this demented creature. He had killed hundreds of your people, erased your universe without a single regret and did the same to thousands more. Whole worlds and civilisations had been destroyed at his hands, so why should you feel any sort of remorse for him?

It seemed that the anguish that ravaged through Error was somehow projecting onto you, burning within the deepest corners of your mind through some invisible link between the two of you. Ink's gaze suddenly darkened and the paintbrush clutched in his hands faded into a deep ebony, elongating into a katana.

"Even after all this time," the painter mused, leaning against the sword. Confusion washed over you, not understand what was going on. "Even after all this time, after I pull apart every identity of your person, rewrite your past and history, you still cannot kill him. The instinct still remains, which I assume is what will ultimately be your downfall."

"W-What the hell are you?" You took a step back in fear before collapsing to the ground in utter agony, the false memories implanted into your skull breaking apart until there was nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing...

And then your memories, the real ones of everything that you had ever lived through flooded back into your mind with a sudden intensity you believed your head to implode from the sheer force of it all. The tent you had been standing in melted away until you once more stood in a black room before the corrupted body of the painter, Gaster's two purple irises blazing with a fury of their own.

"This is the fault of the Overwrite button," he sighed, dancing the tips of his fingers against it. "No matter what I do, I can never change the nature of the soul. Sure enough can I rewrite your memories and erase your histories with a single push of this button, but not the soul, that is something that can never truly be reshaped because it is not code. Under normal circumstances would you have killed Error in a heartbeat, but given the shared nature of your souls, the connection between the two of you persists, even when I sent the two of you on one another."

"I don't understand," you gasped, still struggling against the sudden onslaught of your memories. "You pitched me against Error and I killed him and he seemed pretty eager to tear me a new one."

"You don't remember because I have taken those memories from your mind," Gaster sighed, "but at first, during the first run, Error could not kill you and neither you with him. But with each reset I am slowly getting closer to perfection, to make it so that Error would kill you in a heartbeat. However, you still possess that hesitation inside of you, a part of you still cringes even during the times when you do kill him. But I will fix this, I will perfect this."

"But why do any of this?" you snarled. "Why waste your time with us if you're just going to delete us from existence once you've had your share of fun?"

"Silly," Gaster shook his head, chest heaving in a fit of laughter. "At first I intended to wipe you from existence, but now I see that you could serve a more valuable asset. When I finally eradicate all the universes from existence, I want you inside of my game, to play the role of the main human. But in order for me to do so, I must perfect your code so that you can kill anyone and everything without regret, function so that every part of you plays according to the script and not any part of you wants to rebel or dares to fight back. That is my end game."

"What about the others, Nightmare and his army?"

"Gone!" Gaster screeched in a fit of hysteria. "When you came with your band of rebels, it was nothing more than a thought did I erase them from existence. You and Error are the only ones that remain with the exception of the other universes still in existence which reminds me..."

Gaster waved his hand and Error appeared before you, a haunted look in his features. "Do not bother screaming or attempting to talk with him," Gaster sighed, looking upon the comedian as a creator might do when gazing upon their finest work of art. "I have long since perfected his code, I have long since been able to mask that bond that connects the two of you. He remembers nothing and feels nothing for you, he would kill you in a heartbeat should I command it."

Gaster nodded once at Error, a knowing smile playing his features. A guttural laugh rose in the back of Error's throat as Gaster waved his hand and the three of you arrived within the Doodle Sphere. Blue strings sprouted from Error's hands and wrapped around the paintings, clutching around the very code of each and every universe in existence. And the comedian drew back his hands, the strings tightening, and swiped his hand downwards, ripping through the coding of every universe, tearing apart the portraits, scraps of paper that ripped apart and slowly drifted to the ground, the multiverse shedding tears for the genocide that had occurred this day.

"No more creation, no more destruction," Gaster sighed, waving his hand and engulfing the shards of paper into purple flame. "No universe exists now, we are the only living creatures in all of time and space. And once I perfect your code, once I mask that bond of yours, will I create my universe, the perfect universe, the universe with a happy ending that causes no need for any reset or change."

Gaster and Error spoke in unison, a ghastly chorus.

"Everything is as it should be."