Player

"I was wondering... could I follow the river of space-time back to that world...?" Bored out of his mind, Linde asked the void.

"You can try, but it won't work. I've tried far too many times already. The river cannot carry anything," Gaster answered calmly.

"Oh!" Linde replied in frustration.

Linde stared blankly into the void again. Watching Frisk toss and turn on the bed in Snowdin's hotel, he couldn't help asking, "Isn't it connected to the future too? Why not take a look?"

A trace of helplessness crept into Gaster's voice. "I've never seen you in the future... After you fell underground, this space seemed to acquire the concept of time, and I could no longer see the future..."

"What about the past?" Linde asked curiously.

"Of course we can still see the past," Gaster replied, bringing up the scene of Sans handing Linde the key.

"Wait! What's going on? Why wasn't this version of me erased?!" Linde was stunned.

"Because this is the actual past. You disappeared at the moment you fell in here. No matter how many times a save is loaded afterward, all of this remains the past," Gaster explained.

"Hmm..." Hearing Gaster's explanation, Linde finally understood how loading worked. "I get it! Loading a save doesn't turn back time. It changes the world into the state recorded in that save!"

"That's a simple, clear way of explaining it." Gaster chuckled.

Linde chuckled too, but despair returned to his eyes. "So... there's no way back?"

"If you can change the fact that you fell into the Space-Time Rift, then you can indeed return," Gaster answered helplessly.

"..."

"You still have your body... so you won't have to worry about being bored. Soon, as the void erodes your consciousness, you'll fall into an eternal sleep within it... And I... without a vessel... will be alone again..."

Linde closed his eyes in despair...

Perhaps only a second had passed, or perhaps countless years. A rift suddenly opened in the world of the void, and a figure emerged.

"...Linde..."

"...Linde..."

With those repeated calls, Linde's consciousness returned.

He forced his eyelids open. There seemed to be a red-and-black figure before him.

This person looked very much like Frisk, but their clothes were black and red, their skin was pure black, and their eyes were blood-red.

Linde moved his dry lips. Once he remembered how to speak, he awkwardly asked, "You are...?"

"I'm... Player..."

"Play...er?" Linde was a little bewildered. Isn't this person the protagonist of that AU, Playertale?

"By the way, don't you think you've forgotten something?" Player asked with a smile.

Now that Player mentioned it, Linde suddenly felt as though a small piece of his memory really had gone missing at some point, but he couldn't figure out where the problem lay.

Player said nothing more and pressed a hand directly against his head.

Instantly, memories flooded in!

Four days earlier, before Linde had crossed over to this world, his hazy consciousness had been about to fade as he lay dying when a hand suddenly pointed at him-

His consciousness gathered again, and there stood Player.

"You... really are tenacious... A soul on the verge of dissipating actually made it all the way here on its own... How interesting... Other worlds spend all day fighting over wandering souls to make them transmigrators. Maybe... I should get one too?"

Linde's consciousness gazed at Player in confusion. Hearing no answer, Player simply grabbed his consciousness and began shaping a soul.

"Hmm... the soul best suited to you is Perseverance... I'll add another one for you... Uh, red and blue make purple, so let's add yellow and turn your soul black!"

With that, a streak of yellow light forced its way into Linde.

"Hmm... let's toss him into the Glitch Universe. That would suit him better... Huh? The Main Universe actually wants this soul? This has never happened before... Wait here, little guy. I'll go ask Ink Bastard."

Player left briefly, then reappeared before Linde, erased his memories, and tossed him into the Main Universe.

The memories ended there. Linde looked helplessly at Player. "What made you decide to give me a black heart...?"

"Hey! I would've forgotten if you hadn't brought it up! The two colors in your soul didn't mix properly, so..." As Player spoke, they waved a hand and grasped Linde's soul. "Let me fix it."

The power of nothingness washed over the entire soul. Soon... the two colors blended together, then faded under the void's scouring, finally becoming a translucent gray soul.

Linde could feel the power of the void within his soul. So... should my soul now be called... Nothingness?

"Ah... oops. I used too much void power..." Player pursed their lips. "All right, let's get down to business. I'm here to help you return to the Main Universe."

At that, Linde and Gaster were overjoyed. They asked in unison, "How do we get back?!"

Player waved a hand, and Mount Ebott in the Main Universe appeared behind them.

Under Linde and Gaster's expectant gazes, Player smiled faintly. "Point-Target Universe Reboot."

Then rows of data rose up, swallowing the entire world of the void.

Linde's and Gaster's consciousnesses froze for an instant, then merged into the gaps between the data.